Good times at the Queen Ka’ahumanu Race 2010

I’d heard a lot about Maliko Gulch before we went there for Saturday’s race. Tales of high, Hana-esque surf, hulis and tiger shark encounters abounded and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling nervous.

Nervous, excited and raring to go. I think that’s how a lot of us felt. The crew that had been training together all week was the six who were in the boat – myself, Jenny, Carlee, Aviva, Allie and Arika. In the days preceding the race we’d practiced a few long-distance pieces, had some good time on the water together and had done some all-important huli drills. We felt ready for Maliko but, as none of us had done this race before, we weren’t quite sure what to expect.

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

The Queen Ka’ahumanu is an all-women race and it was pretty cool to arrive at Maliko Gulch for registration to see all the female paddlers getting ready. Everyone was chatting to each other, getting warmed up and, after the race blessing, we all helped each other into the water with our boats.

The conditions were great – there was a good tailwind blowing and a bit of a swell to make it fast and fun, but nothing of the monstrous surf we’d heard about. In fact, Coach Spud said it was the calmest he’d ever seen it in all his years of paddling there. Lucky us eh?!

Pulling up to the starting line felt really exciting, as a fleet of canoes (about 24 in total) paddled out and then turned so the wind was behind us. I definitely felt nervous at this point but also amped up and charged for the race.

The girls bring it in with Spud, Vae and Joe after the race.

The race was incredible, what an experience! With the wind behind us and some decent-sized waves to catch (and our strong paddling of course…) our pace was good and it felt great to walk it past a few other crews and to gain ground on those that’d had a strong start. I wasn’t exactly sure which crews we were passing and which beaches we were paddling past as I was concentrating so hard on keeping my focus in our boat.

It felt slightly like Hana, in the respect that myself and Jen would be paddling air for quite a lot of strokes – as the nose of our boat was tilted up and down by the surf. Paddling air and the lack of resistance can really affect your timing, so I was trying really hard to keep a rhythm for every stroke.

The final sprint towards the finish flag. Imua Lahaina!

The girls did great – Jenny was a really good, supportive seat two, Carlee’s calling from seat three was perfect, Aviva and Allie gave us superb power back in the ‘engine room’ of seats four and five and Arika’s steering and captaincy was superb. It was really enjoyable.

After a while I started thinking ‘surely that can’t be Kahului’ as our destination looked far too close. But it was, and when we realised we were on the final strait, we picked it up a gear. When we got to the mouth of the harbor, we had Napili’s Sophomore boat right next to us, and a Hawaiian boat too. Our final mile was an all-out sprint as we were desperate to beat the two boats next to us.

Imua Lahaina!!!

We pushed it really hard and, even though we were cut off at one point by the Napili crew, Arika nipped inside of them to give us a tighter angle on the turn into the harbor to reach the finish line. And you know what?? We did it! We beat the two crews by just over a second. Elated doesn’t even come close to describing how we felt!

We came third in our division (photos of the time sheet are to follow) and we beat three masters crews and Napili’s Sophomores along the way. This felt like a huge achievement. In fact the whole day felt like a massive accomplishment and one that I felt completely privileged to have been able to be a part of. My sister and I remarked a few times; ‘I wonder how many English sisters get to compete in an event like this?’ not many, I’d wager. That too, just adds to the huge feeling of being honored to be involved in such a unique and incredible sport.

Mimosas here we come! (L-R: Me, Arika, Allie, Jenny, Aviva and Carlee)

The Queen Ka'ahumanu Race 2010 official standings.

 

Na Kai Ewalu (who were hosting the event) served a breakfast of fruit, pastries and mimosas which was a nice touch to the morning’s race. We were a little put out that this was the first race in which medals had not been given to the third-place teams. I mean, really, come on, it was our first opportunity to win one and there was not a medal to be seen. First place got a wooden bowl and second place won, erm, a packet of insect repellent (!!??). The men were given medals the next day, which was a bit disappointing from our point of view. It was an amazing day but I was a bit disgruntled about that. Hmph!

Erm, medals anyone?

Oh well, we’d just better make sure we win a medal in one of our remaining races eh girls?

Again, many many mahalos for reading. Aloha for now, Laura

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