New Sheriff in Town?

News from Tahiti: Recently the 166 Km 3-day race around Tahiti ended. When it was all over, EDT was the winner besting heavyweights Shell Va'a, OPT and Paddling Connection. Does this result mean that the Shell run of five straight Moloka'i Hoe wins could be over? We'll find out in October but this up and coming crew appears to be ready to knock off the big dog.

For a look at the action:

Disaster in Lane Eleven: The Demise of Honaunau

On a beautiful sunny day on Nanakuli Beach, disaster struck Honolulu Pearl Canoe Club with a horrendous crash on the beach that seriously damaged their venerable koa canoe Honaunau and injured two paddlers. Intermittent large sets had been running through lanes 10-12 with big surges up the sloping beach. Unfortunately, Honolulu's Novice A women's crew, paddling in Lane 11, could not pull out of a wave at the finish and the canoe hit the sand with explosive impact. Afterwards there was a sad procession as the canoe was carried up the beach along with the pieces of the front half of the canoe.

Keahiakahoe's Stan Dickson expressed it well for all onlookers and fellow paddlers: "When I saw then carry the canoe out, my heart just dropped. It's really unfortunate because everybody treasures their koa canoe. That's part of your family, part of your club. Koa canoes mean everything to us in paddling."

On a personal note, when I started paddling in 1994 before coming to Anuenue, it was with this club, and my first race in a koa canoe was in Honaunau. The club had another koa at the time, the Honolulu, but Honaunau was the pride of the club and was paddled across the channel by the women's open crew that year. A little more background: Built in 1952 on the Big island, the canoe was sold to Hui Nalu and then later obtained by Gary Oakland for the new Honolulu Canoe Club. I remember well working on the canoe during those days, and most recently, it had another makeover for this year's regatta season. We all feel badly when koas get damaged but in this particular

for me it was especially a sad sight to witness.

However we've seen some remarkable restorations over the years. The return of Keoua Canoe Club's Kaahumanu from a Kaiwi Channel disaster in 1996 comes to mind. Our sympathies and aloha go out to Honolulu Pearl with best wishes for their injured paddlers and the return of Honaunau. Fundraisers no doubt will be on the horizon, and we'll be able to help them out.

Veterans in the Boat

Anuenue paddlers had a chance to share their sport with veterans participating in the annual Golden Age Games this past weekend. Turns out that every Memorial Day Weekend for the past 25 years this get together for military vets over age 55 is held at various sites across the USA and for the first time it was held in Hawaii. Over 900 vets were on hand with a full schedule of activities ranging from dominoes to some track events like discus and shot put. Paddling was added as an "exhibition", and four canoe clubs helped out taking participants out the Hilton channel for a run off Waikiki. Aka Hemmings and his Pure Light paddlers were instrumental in running the event. For many of the veterans, it was the high point of the weekend especially for those with significant handicaps. For us, it was also a memorable experience as we got to meet them and hear about their background. It's always inspirational to see how these individuals overcome their disabilities to stay competitive and enjoy sports. "We're part of a wonderful brotherhood, " said one. One guy with lower leg prostheses told me he was a ski instructor back home on the east coast As the volunteers on the beach mentioned numerous times, the excited faces of the vets as they returned to the beach told the story. Many were Vietnam era vets, and for me personally having spent a year in Vietnam as a Navy doctor in the Marines, we had much in common. On Sunday, Hardy and I were helping a guy back to his wheelchair when the beach church service was taking place outside the Hilton and they were playing the Star Spangled banner and God Bless America. Everyone paused to sing along and it was definitely a chicken skin moment thinking of what those words meant to these people as well as me. Thank you guys ( "Patriots in Paradise" ) for your service to your country!

Eono Hoe #2

Just a few observations about the second edition of Eono Hoe: This year there were two stages with the first being from Maui (off Fleming's Beach) to Kaunakakai and day two from Molokai (west end) to Maunalua Bay. Conditions were smoking for the run from Maui with gusty trades and small craft warnings. Kaumana was paddling a new carbon fiber boat and took advantage of the day to leave the rest of the field behind including the other light boats. Karel had a new composite boat which looked "Hawaiian" with manus. The surprise to many was that the Primo boys in a Bradley were right there as well. One question: Why trailer the boats for the second day? Why not finish at Hale o Lono and start from there the next day? Longer but still a reasonable way to do it. Maybe next year? Taking photos from my usual perch off Koko Head , I was expecting the composites to be battling for the lead. Kamanu led the pack but close behind was Primo giving up over 150 pounds with their conventional Bradley. A California Lanikila crew paddling a Bradley finished well also. Moral: Composites make a difference but it still comes down to who's in the boat.

This weekend Anuenue will be helping out with the "Veteran Games" on the water especially with some guys who will be paddling despite some major handicaps. A high for them as well as those who help!

2011 updates

Here we are with March and a new paddling season around the corner. Of course at Anuenue, there really is no off season as many of us continue with our three times a week routine for exercise and chances to talk story. Nappy and a few others helped out again with ILH paddling races with the high schoolers competing their season with the State Championships on 2/4/2011 at Ke'ehi Lagoon (a Kamehameha sweep with the Kapalama paddlers coming in first in the boys, girls, and mixed competition). A few entries in the OC-1 races but other than that, not much on the racing scene. Nappy and several of the boys are currently down in New Zealand for something new: The Takapuna Cup near Auckland which consists of sprint, relay and distance events.

Molokai musings

Good day in a pretty rough channel with props to Nappy as always! We ended up second in the 60s and 84th/119 crews. The congestion and wake city zone around the first change was pretty major. Little did we know until afterwards what was going on then. We just paddled through it all and didn't make a change until around an hour and a half into the race. Long stints in the canoe work better for us guys by far as we have trained that way and our "changes" aren't exactly speedy!

Afterwards we got the news that Luke Evselin had a serious accident during that first change. (see http://thegardenisland.com/sports/recreation/article_9e7a50d6-d5d1-11df-9092-001cc4c002e0.html). He's going to be OK but it'll be awhile before he's back in the water again. Lots of prayers and support for him from everyone in the paddling community. He was planning on going down to race in the Hawaiki Nui again; talked to him recently about his crew.

A good time for the race committee to take a a new look at ways to minimize this kind of risk, which we have all been talking about for a number of years as the number of entries have increased. Staggered starts make the most sense; others think the number of crews should be limited. And of course there's the iron route as well. However fluid and food drops are still needed but they can be spaced out better.

Thinking about Moloka'i 2010

Moloka'i 2010 countdown:

Had a good time racing on Saturday the 2nd in the Ke'ehi Ironman event from Hawaii Kai to Ke'ehi Lagoon. Only 13 canoes entered and none except us in our 60s division. A little respect! The 55s and 60s got a head start with the idea being everyone would end up around the same time. Little did we know that was exactly what happened as we pushed hard to catch a boat ahead of us near the finish. Managed to just nip those guys in a wild finish with the Hui Lanikila open girls closing fast just behind us. Pretty cool!! Took us about 2 hrs and 7 minutes so a good prep for next weekend.

Last night after practice had a chance to talk story with Manutea Owen, the Huahine paddler who supposedly was going to steer Shell in this year's race. Not! He said he trained with them for a month or so but ended up deciding against joining the "big city" boys. Non-committal about where he was going to end up on Sunday. Probably more to the story but interesting getting his take on the race. All the heavyweights will be racing and besides four-time defending champ Shell, the list includes OPT A & B, EDT, Paddling Connection and Bora Bora.

Sounded like he was leaning toward OPT to win but said Shell has a "special canoe." Should be a great race, and Team Primo sure has their work cut out.

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