It’s been too long

I have been in the boat almost as much as I have been blogging recently. Which is to say, unfortunately, not much.

But as 2012 approaches and I make my resolutions for the new year, paddling and blogging (much more) is at the forefront of my mind.

Myself and the girls managed to get out three or four times last month for recreational paddles. It was great and reinforced our desire to be back in the boat.

Speaking of boats, Lahaina Canoe Club had the good fortune to be donated a brand spanking new Bradley wa’a and it recently landed on these shores to be admired by all and to receive its blessing at Hanakao’o Beach.

Remember the rumors about Bengal tiger stripes? Well…

LCC's new canoe, from Makana Aloha

 

The new wa'a gets blessed on December 17, 2011

The boat was donated to LCC by the Makana Aloha Foundation - a foundation that was created in 2007 by husband and wife team JoRene and Gunars Valkirs, who are dedicated to supporting and improving the Maui Community.

Amazing people who really give back to the community and have given Lahaina Canoe Club a huge boost with the donation of this boat that will be primarily used for the club’s keiki crews.

It’s an incredible gesture and, I must say, a badass boat! Imua and huge mahalos, I’m sure, from anyone connected with LCC.

That’s all for now, thank you so much for your continued visits to my blog – readership continues to grow  and I couldn’t be happier!

I’ll be back soon with more and some details of my first forays into the world of one-man paddling as I attempt to go it alone on an OC-1.

Bye for now, Laura

The Pailolo Challenge 2011

September 17 was the day of the 2011 Pailolo Challenge – a race from Maui to Moloka’i and it’s a date I won’t be forgetting any time soon.

Rainbows before the race at DT Flemings.

The Pailolo Channel is known as  ”one of the windiest and roughest in the Hawaiian Islands” and it’s noted that “Pailolo translates to “crazy fisherman” referring to the typical sea surface conditions and who would attempt to navigate therein”.

Well, it was not so much crazy fishermen as crazy paddlers but we did it and it was one hell of an experience.

Early on in the race, the NCC ladies catching a bump.

Napili Canoe Club is one of LCC’s neighboring  hales and their ladies’ crew were on the lookout for an extra paddler. I jumped at the chance to join them. It was great to spend the week prior to the race training with Napili – learning how to do water changes, bump drills and much more. It had been a while since I felt like I’d had much direction in training and it felt fantastic to have multiple coaches out with us on the water. It’s nice to see how other clubs operate!

I’d heard so much about this race especially from my sister, Jenny who did it in her Novice B year with Hawaiian Canoe Club (amazing thing to do in your first year Jen!). About the wind, the current, the swells, the deep deeeeep water and what may be lurking below… actually better not to think about that last one. Anyway, all things considered, the night before the race I was nervous, definitely nervous.

We had ten female paddlers on our crew and the way it worked was this: six paddlers would start the race and paddle for between 20 minutes to half an hour. At this time Mike (Tihada) our coach, would call out four seat numbers before our escort boat zoomed off to position itself ahead of the approaching canoe. Four of us would jump off the escort boat and wait in the water as the canoe came towards us, ready to jump into our seats.

Off the boat, into the water.

This is where the adrenaline starts pumping…

Bobbing and splashing in the Pailolo Channel.

You go from being on the escort boat, into the water. Into one of the roughest channels in the Hawaiian islands. You are waiting for a canoe to come, at speed. A wave takes you up, you see the boat. A wave takes you down, the boat disappears. So you whack the water really hard – sending up as many splashes as you can, so the canoe can see you. As it comes towards you you position yourself in a row and all grab hold of the gunnel and swing yourself out of the water and into the boat. As you’re doing this, the person who’s getting out of your seat has to jump off in the opposite direction. It’s a blast!!

This was what I was worried about – getting into the boat but once you are in that water and the adrenaline is pumping, you just do it. There is no way you want to be left behind and before you know it, you are in, zipped (into the boat’s covers), and paddling.

When you have taken a turn paddling, you are the one who jumps out of the canoe and tries to get back onto the escort boat. Once you’re safely on, it’s time to re-hydrate, prepare yourself for the next round and encourage your team-mates. Before long, it’s time to swallow your nerves and jump back into the churning water again.

Some may think we're crazy but this is fun!

We paddled for four hours and 45 minutes. Wow. What a mental and physical test it was. No wonder they call it the ‘challenge’. It really was incredible to experience and I am so thankful to the girls and coaches at Napili who had me on board. One thing that sticks in my mind is the positivity that everyone had all day, it was smiles and laughs all-round and all day. Just brilliant.

I’ll be back soon with more but for now a big mahalo for visiting my blog!

The Queen Lili’uokalani Race 2011

A week ago today we were Big Island bound. Full of excitement and expectation, with a good measure of nerves. We were going to take part in our first Queen Lili’uokalani race, a paddling event hosted by Kai Opua Canoe Club that takes in 18 miles of the Kona coastline.

Last year, our Novice B year, we’d heard so much about this race and we knew we had to do it. It was our target for 2011 and a lot of hard work was put in to get us to the point where we actually boarded a plane and headed south (for 30 minutes… you have got to love these short inter-island flights).

Goodbye Maui.

Long. Hot and flat were the words that always seemed to crop up when veterans of the ‘Queens Race’ told us about it. We were fully expecting a grueling race but at the same time, we had no idea what it would actually be like and no concept of the coastline there.

Even arriving at the hotel was a blast – how could it not be? Seven girls who have paddled together all season, all totally giddy about the approaching weekend. Seeing the rows, upon rows, upon rows of canoes from all over the world at Kailua Bay was probably our first of many ‘chicken skin’ moments. Unbelievable.

Six of us took our boat out to paddle around the harbor and get a little feel for the waters there. We saw a huge pod of dolphins right away and thought “Yes, now this is going to be good.”

It was really nice to see Lahaina Canoe Club and other Maui canoe clubs’ paddlers out there too. There’s something about traveling to a new place and seeing familiar faces that brings you all together – especially when you’re all in the same boat, competing for the same goal.

There was an overriding sense of togetherness in Kona actually. I don’t know if I can quite put my finger on it, but I think when thousands of people come together to compete in an incredble location in Hawaii, with everyone sharing that passion for paddling, you can’t help but have a great atmosphere and spirit of aloha. Yes, a minority of people are grouchy and snap a little bit (I won’t mention any names…) but really underneath it all, they’re loving it too. I think.

So – to the race. After eating a huge amount of carbs the previous night (thank you Quinn’s) and hydrating, hydrating, hydrating all week (thank you Messrs Gatorade, H20, Coconut water, Pedialite, You-name-it-we-drank-it…) we were ready to go.

The LCC wahine Novice crew (L-R: Eli, me, Wendy, Aviva, Lindsey, Jen and Carlee)

The starting line is an experience in itself. Imagine 137 boats lining up. It was canoes and paddlers as far as the eye could see. The crews who were doing water changes also had their escort boats and there were plenty of other spectator boats, jet skis and even a helicopter in attendance, it was manic.

Michelle, our new hero, gives us some good advice.

However, we’d received some very sage advice from Michelle – one of LCC’s former paddlers who’d returned for this race. She told us to stay on the outside and stay there we did – we were out of the jam-packed inside section of the race and didn’t have to battle and bump into other wa’a. Even better – we got to ride some bumps, which really helped our race.

 

It took a good half-hour for the race got started, as the officials made sure everyone was lined up. When the klaxon blared we were off and it felt like we had a pretty good start.

Looking back, the race is a blur. I remember that my hands were sore and my body started to cramp up at one point. The rest? The rest was pure elation, I loved it. We all did. I remember Lindsey saying a few times “I am so happy, I am so happy.” Which was so nice to hear, I think she spoke for all of us.

Each of us took a break once or twice, to eat some Shot Bloks and/or drink some water but we really didn’t feel too fatigued. I think we were lucky. In fact, after talking to other people we were damn lucky. Hot and flat never really happened – we were very fortunate to have cloud cover, wind and a gentle swell – so we could catch bumps.

We’d estimated our finish time to be somewhere in the region of three and-a-half hours but we finished in 2:54. So we were stoked!

Arriving at Honaunau after our 18 mile paddle.

We arrived at the finish line with smiles on our faces. We definitely had a happy boat. It was the men’s turn to hop in the boat, to paddle back from Honaunau to Kailua Bay. We swapped with the Novice As and the Master Women with the Master Men. Our friends from Na Kai Ewalu had kindly let us travel back to the starting line in their van, so all we had to find was beer, cold beer.

Our male crews did really well. Especially our Novice As (Mike R, Mone, Seth, Chris, Eric and Jordan). They came in 35th out of 144 crews and our Master Men (Adam, Spud, Mark, Geoff, Alan and Bear) came in 44. Imua guys and congratulations!

I’d like to make a special mention to Eli Montoya who wasn’t able to paddle with us. It was fantastic to have her with us though and she was definitely in the boat in spirit, you rock Eli! I wish we had a seven-seater canoe in Kona… Also, to Aviva who, unbelievably, managed to paddle 18 miles with a fresh double fracture in her tailbone. I don’t know how she did it but she did. Brilliant!

The evening after the race was all about eating, drinking, dancing and drinking some more. Before the partying really started there was an incredible torchlit parade along the streets of Kona  – it was chucking it down with rain (which is rare) but it didn’t dampen the spirits or the flames. See below for some pictures, it was unreal. Reason alone for going!

Fire!

Fire and Hula.

I can’t wait to do it again, it really was an amazing experience. Well worth all the car wash fundraisers. It took a lot of work by a lot of people to make it happen and all the help was massively appreciated.

A big mahalo for reading, I’ll be back soon with more. Laura

Kona (and an 18 mile race) awaits…

It’s taken a lot of organizing, plenty of fundraising and hours of practice but the day is finally here. Today, we head to Big Island for the Queen Lili’uokalani canoe race.

Last season our one aim for this year was to enter this event. It’s the world’s largest canoe race and we’ve heard so much about it, we knew we wanted to compete and hoped it would become a reality in our second year of paddling.

Getting our boat ready for shipping at Kahului Harbor.

The hard work of our crew and determination to do what we said we were going to do has led us to this point. It would have been easy to  say we couldn’t afford to do it, or simply to lose focus but we have made it! Now we have just got to get out there and paddle.

I think ‘chicken skin’ is going to be making many appearances this weekend. We’ve heard that the starting line measures around 1/4 mile and anywhere between 100 and 150 crews will be lining up to race. I can’t begin to get my head around that and can’t wait to see it, let alone be a part of it. Then we have a torchlight parade around the streets of Kona afterwards, it promises to be very special indeed.

Our boat gets hoisted up to get shipped to Kona. It was actually a bit nerve-wracking seeing it so high, hoping they didn't drop it.

The women race first – we start from Kailua Bay and race 18 miles in flat water and hot conditions to Honaunau – a sacred spot here in Hawaii. Crews have the option of racing ‘iron’ which means they race the entire course with no changes or as a nine-person crew, with water changes. We’re doing it iron.

The men’s crews will then race back to the starting line by which time, we will have either collapsed or started on the congratulatory ice cold beers…

There’s been some truly epic surf on Maui this week which, while fantastic for surfing, hasn’t been the best for paddling. We had a training schedule that we couldn’t do because the surf was too big for us to get the canoe in and out of the water, so I’m feeling a little unprepared. Here’s hoping our season-long paddles will stand us in good stead.

Lahaina Canoe Club is taking four crews – the Novice A and Master Women and the Novice A and Master Men. It’s great to have so many of us going and I’m intrigued to see all the different teams from all over the world. If there’s a team from England I must meet them!

There’s going to be plenty of  stories, photographs and more when we return, so make sure you check back to see how it went. Bye for now, it’s time to pack!

Mahalo for reading. Laura.

Maliko – The Queen Ka’ahumanu Race 2011

We felt pretty accomplished on Saturday morning. Our six girls (Wendy, Carlee, Tomoko, Aviva, Jen and myself) arrived at Maliko Gulch nice and early to add a layer of scotch-guard to our canoe’s canvas covers, which we also duct taped down to the hull, just to be sure. We hit a bit of a stumbling block when it came to attaching our bailers to the ‘iakos, something to do with rice spoons, we’re just not sure quite what. Whoever knew a pair of rice spoons could be so tricky…

We also needed to figure out a way to attach a spare blade to the ‘iakos, should somebody break or lose a paddle during the race. We didn’t have any rubber to tie it down but luckily someone from Na Kai Ewalu, the day’s hosts, stepped in and kindly helped us out.

It was a bit rubbish actually, not knowing completely what we were doing ahead of our Maliko race. We are just very thankful to Barry, Jordan, Michael and Mark S for helping us to get the boats over there in the first place. For two crew members it was their first time racing at Maliko and for Jenny, it was her first time steering. Some support on the day would have been lovely but it made us feel all the more motivated to get out there and show how committed we are. 

The course - Maliko Gulch to Kahului Harbor. Pic courtesy of http://outriggercanoe.ning.com/

This time last year we were all pretty nervous about this race following the tales we’d been told about high surf, hulis and plenty of sharks… but after re-reading last year’s blog about the Queen Ka’ahumanu Race 2010 I remember that we were pleasantly surprised and it actually ended up being our favorite event of the year.

We loved it again. There weren’t as many competing teams as last year but it was still a fantastic day. I think we have some work to do on catching bumps but I can honestly say we were really happy with how we performed. Especially Jenny, in seat six.

With some considerable swell behind you, this race seems to go by in a flash. A combination of the waves, the distance and the tailwind makes Maliko enjoyable from start to finish, just don’t pay any attention to the dark shapes in the water below. They’re probably rocks but I swear your mind plays tricks on you.

We didn’t realise until after the race that Novice steerswomen actually aren’t allowed to steer. Your steerswoman should be ‘Open’. Considering that she has been steering for about a year in total, Jenny did an incredible job. Not one huli, constant encouragement and drive and we didn’t come last. It was a really great achievement and I’m sure it’ll stand her in good stead for future steering opportunities. And…if you read this Na Kai, oops sorry, we didn’t know!

After the race Napili Canoe Club were kind enough to help us trailer our boats back to Maliko for the Men’s race the following day. They’re our neighbor club back on the westside and their help was hugely appreciated, as the six of us really needed it, imua Napili!

A mention must go to Na Kai’s post-race breakfast, it was amazing. Not only did we have mimosas, but the offerings of fruit, pastries, granola, bread and cheese were fantastic. It was so nice to have some healthy and vegetarian options and some booze too!

Saturday’s race is the Dutchy Kino Memorial, which threw some surprises our way last season, I’ll be back soon with more news about Hawaiian Canoe Club’s race. Mahalo for reading, Laura