Waimanalo Blues

Senior men at the start

Almost predictably on a windy, sunny day, Waimānalo featured hulis galore and DQs as paddlers encountered challenging conditions. With the inevitable delays and the late hour, the race schedule questions resurfaced as the regatta had to be called with five events remaining. At that point, with chilly conditions especially on the beach, the remaining paddlers were more than ready to call it a day. Needless to say, deciding what to do next about the missing races will be a troublesome issue for OHCRA officials to resolve. Possibilities include running the events at the next regular regatta at Kāneʻohe Bay.

Still racing as 7pm approaches

Fatherʻs Day Regatta Redux

One year ago Honolulu Canoe Clubʻs Hōnaunau had a disastrous trip to the beach as the crew and canoe crashed to the sand after a big set came through lane 12. Honolulu Pearl is using a borrowed koa as Hōnaunau is still being repaired. Todayʻs conditions were much mellower, and the regatta went smoothly ending around 4 PM.

A lot of discussion about possible regatta changes besides those mentioned in last weekʻs blog:

Eliminating several races: Dropping the fours was frequently mentioned especially because there are sometimes two heats. So it comes down to popularity vs practicality as this option has been discussed before. Another idea would be to revise the age group divisions to correspond to those used in the World Sprints i.e. 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Both changes would drop two races from the schedule. If this schedule were adopted and any events with three or less entries were combined with others, the end result would be a shorter day for all.

Regattas such as Nanakuli or MacFarlane that are out and back events are not subject to many delays such as we can see at Kailua and Waimanalo. The results of a 42-race schedule are really magnified at these two sites depending on conditions. Will OHCRA officials even be willing to discuss any significant changes remains to be seen! In the meantime the discussion continues....

In the tube Tahitian style!

Some totally insane surfing at Teahupoo! Check it out! http://www.doobybrain.com/2012/06/09/surfing-teahupoos-mega-swells/

Regatta 2012: Too much of a good thing?

Time for a change? Two regattas into the 2012 season and we've been hearing some continued commentary of what has become a very long day at the races. Currently there are a record 42 races on the schedule, and under the best of circumstances with no unforeseen delays, we are still competing late in the afternoon. At Ke'ehi, the last events of the day were being run close to 6 PM. Clubs were in various stages of packing up and some had exited already. The focus was not really on the last one or two races but more on leaving the area. The next weekend at Kailua saw an even longer day as there were some early hulls with some inevitable delays. At Ānuenue, we were pulling out at around 7 PM as we scrambled to load the canoe and clean up our area.

The open-4 crew gets ready to paddle out close to 6 PM.

What to do?

Reflecting on the contrast to regatta days past where the race schedule had only 16-18 races, our current line up may have reached the point where a strong case can be made to consider some other approaches. There are times when races with only a few entries could be combined in order to speed things up and take advantage of a number of empty lanes. For example, on Sunday at Kailua, the womenʻs 60s race had only two entries. Why not combine them with the menʻs 60s, a race that only has 4-5 entries? Another suggestion from Nappy: Have an on-call paddling "Swat Team" so that if there is a huli, the process of righting the canoe can be expedited by individuals who are veterans and experts about the process. If you go over, in this regatta setting, itʻs over. Why delay the process to see if perhaps the crew can get going fast enough to be awarded one point for participating for the State championship qualifying total.

Another more radical possibility would be to split up the regatta making it a two day event. For example, the first day on Saturday could be for the younger generation of paddlers say up to 18s. Plenty of time for the inexperienced keikis to enjoy the event and for teenagers to hang with their friends and compete. Letʻs face it, they would much rather have their own regatta time without a bunch of adults around except for their coaches. Parents could come and support their kids without having to spend the entire day at the beach. The flip side of course is the young paddlers are mostly long gone anyway leaving to enjoy the rest of their weekend with little interest in the adult competition.

Day two would be the adult events. The early races could be the older adults who tend to be early risers anyway. The climactic races should be the senior events with the other races being run earlier. The mixed races would also benefit as these paddlers would some interested spectators instead of the "letʻs get this over with so we can get out of here " feeling that understandably occurs as the hour gets later and later. With our current schedule, regattas run in this way would have a manageable 28 races.

To be sure, some major logistical challenges would have to be overcome with a 2-day event including probably the permitting process. Hauling canoes twice vs leaving them on the beach overnight?? Yet at this stage the regattas are now approaching marathon events that cry out for seriously considering some significant changes. Hopefully OHCRA will not be opposed to considering input to streamline our highlight summer events.

6:15 PM and weʻre still racing!