At this writing, May 19th, and with it the first regatta day, is now behind us. A long-awaited goal has been reached, and things will now settle into the routine of racing every Saturday.
Last Tuesday marked the beginning of final preparations for race day. Not only did we have to practice racing turns around the flag, but also needed to make some decisions on who would race in the first regatta. Probably one of the most undesirable jobs a canoe coach has is to make the assignments for a race, which invariably means that some elated individual gets to race, while a disappointed, hard-training paddler does not. I actually talked to Coach Eddie earlier in the week and assured him that whatever he decided, I would be fine with – if I could race, great, and if not, I would support the club with other duties. Given the fact that I was somewhat new to the club and we had about 13 or 14 paddlers in my age-group vying for 5 seats (the steersperson was already assigned), my hopes of racing were not all that high. On Tuesday, however, I was put into the canoe that would race the 50’s race on Saturday, and while things got shuffled a little bit during Thursday’s practice, I was designated to paddle in seat 2, taking over duties to pull the canoe around in the turn. We spent quite a bit of time on Thursday coordinating our team, learning the correct approach to the flag, talking about the various calls which signal what everyone has to do in the canoe, and generally getting in tune with each other. At the end of the practice session, we felt good and were ready for things to come.
Saturday morning, I ventured to the Kailua Pier at 6:30am. The opening ceremony was slated for 8am, however much work was to be done before that. The tent for our club was put up on Friday, right at the edge of the pier and close to the starting line, but things had to be brought inside, a ladder had to be affixed to the pier in order to climb from the water back out to the tent, and other smaller items had to be arranged, all of which I gladly assisted with.
The keiki (children) were the first to race, and they showed up by 7:30am, accompanied by their parents and their coaches, and after a traditional Hawaiian ceremony, including a beautiful chant by a Hawaiian Kumu, the first races went underway. There were a total of 39 races on the roster, starting with girls and boys, moving up to the adults, by age groups, with many races for women, men and mixed (3 women and 3 men). I knew that I would not race before 2:30pm or so, so there was ample time to go around from club tent to club tent and check out what other clubs do, browse the vendors’ booths that offered everything from hats, t-shirts and Hawaiian jewelry, to food and beverages. I also had the chance to visit with three of our employees, Micah the bell person who paddles for Keauhou Canoe Club, Bryce from Security with Kai Ehitu Canoe Club, and Elaine from our beach, who lives in Hilo and whose young children paddle for Kamehamea Canoe Club. Paddling is truly a family sport, not only for traditional families that paddle together, but generally for paddlers who treat each other like family. Frequently I returned to Kai `Opua’s tent to support our other crews, watch the races and tally the points. While there were no official point standings during the day, we knew that we had amassed many top results and were pretty sure that we were leading the point standings.
Around 2:30pm, Spence Lavea, our steersperson, called our team together to go out and warm up in one of the fiberglass canoes. Dane in seat 1, myself seat 2, Jack in 3, Dave in 4, Dan in 5 and Spence in 6. The water was fairly flat and we went for a mile or so, practicing a few turns around a buoy floating in the ocean, and stretched our muscles a bit. Then we went back in to wait our turn.
As it got closer to our race, a rumor went around that Puna Canoe Club, based in Hilo, had assembled an all-star team of outstanding and well-know legends in canoe racing, including Steve Blyth, a canoe builder who makes some of the most advanced fiberglass and carbon fiber canoes available on the market today (as a matter of fact, he brought one of his IHE six- person canoes and put it on the beach for everyone to look at – incredibly light, strong and unbelievably beautiful). As this rumor continued, it was eventually confirmed that these six individuals would indeed race in our men’s 50’s race, and immediately it became clear that we would be racing for 2nd (and it was a given that they would win by an unheard-of margin). As we jumped off the pier and into the water to climb into the koa canoe when our turn came, the excitement built and we were all looking forward to our first race. As we lined up, we had Puna Canoe Club on our left and Keaukaha Canoe Club on our right. Two individuals from our club were with us on the canoe and then jumped off at the starting line to hold the canoe in position until the race went off. One of the individuals was Coach Eddie, and when he heard someone say “look at those guys from Puna”, he immediately responded by saying “if that is the energy you have in your boat, you will not win – put good energy out there, and things will go alright”. For me personally, it didn’t matter either way – I had not heard of these individuals before today, only met them a few moments prior to the race, and was fairly ignorant about the incredible paddlers lining up on our left (which, without being disrespectful to their lives’ great accomplishments, in my case was bliss).
We were all ready, the yellow flag on the officials motor boat came up, waved, went down and red was raised, the signal for the race to start. We had a fairly good start, but none of us knew really how we stacked up, as all you do is concentrate on the person in front of you, trying to get the canoe up to speed quickly, then settle into a good stroke, grabbing the water with every paddle motion, controlling the breathing that was elevated during the start, and then starting to concentrate on the upcoming turn. As our canoe started to turn, and as I focused on the turn-buoy to make sure I had it in my vision to pull the canoe around, I glanced at Puna’s canoe and believed that we were slightly ahead. As we turned, I started to pull the canoe around and it felt really easy, the back-end came around in no time, and Dane in seat 1 and I were able to paddle forward almost immediately, picking up good speed out of the turn. Another quick glance to the (now) right, and I realized that we had turned much quicker than Puna. Now we were staring down the line, a quarter-mile to the finish, and the canoe moved smoothly. Dane had a very solid, long stroke, I emulated him on the opposite side, and it felt like we all gripped the water in complete unison. I faintly remember Spence in seat 6 yelling “three more changes, you can do it” as we motored along and getting closer to the finish, and all of a sudden, a pod of dolphins moved right in front of our canoe from right to left, as if they were coming out to welcome us at the finish.
When we crossed the line, I glanced to the right and saw Puna a couple of boat lengths behind us, which made us victorious in our first race against some of the most aw-inspiring paddlers in our age-group (and even younger ones) in the state.
Senior masters men 50: 1. Kai Opua Canoe Club 3:41.57 (Dane Enos, Dave Monson, Spencer Lavea, Christof Luedi, Dan Leyva, Jack Gillen); 2. Puna Canoe Club 3:50.09; 3. Keaukaha Canoe Club 4:04.45; 4. Na Waa Hanakahi 4:19.18; SCR Keauhou Canoe Club; SCR Kawaihae Canoe Club; SCR Kamehameha Canoe Club; SCR Kai Ehitu; SCR Waikoloa Canoe Club
Our time of 3:41.57 was the fastest half-mile of the day – but many of the elite paddlers have to go one full mile, so this statement is not all that important.
We will see what will happen next week – perhaps the coach will leave this winning boat intact for another race, perhaps he saw something that could be changed to make the crew faster – the only thing that is for sure is that we will paddle against Puna on their home-turf in Hilo, and they will not take this first loss lightly and will come back at us with a vengeance.
Me ke aloha, a hui hou.
Chris
Nicely written! Congratulations to you and the crew. Eddie was right!
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