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

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!

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.

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

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.

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

This year’s no different. I can’t wait. Tomorrow is Lae ‘ula’s Tag Team Relay and it should be great – especially for the Novice Bs, who’ll be feeling the same anticipation that we had last year. We’ll be down in numbers from last time around and just using one boat but no matter what, we’re going to have a great time.

The race stretches from Ka Lae Pohaku in Kihei to Hankao’o/Canoe Beach in Lahaina and measures in around 22 miles. It’s a distance race but it’s definitely fun and a great way to get geared up for the next few races. Views from the water of the pali and the westside are fantastic too.

Apart from the crews who do the 22 miles ‘iron’, the race is split up into segments – of which the crew (one men’s, one women’s) switch out at various points along the way.

The changes are at Haycraft, “Grandma’s’, Olowalu, Launiupoko and Mala Ramp – with the final stretch running from Mala to Canoe Beach.

The race is set to start at 8am and our boat is already rigged and ready to go, so all we have to do is car pool and head over to Kihei in the morning.

Last year was definitely a learning curve for this race – know we know the chaos that awaits when hundreds of paddlers are running over the highway, jumping into the water and scrambling to find the right boat to jump into. We’ll also try to prevent any broken bones this time (Jenny) and will have some snacks and drinks on standby to keep up going. Whether or not Lahaina Canoe Club will drop in and surf a wave at the Ole Longboard Classic at Launiupoko tomorrow remains to be seen, they did pretty well last year…

I’ll be back with pictures and news from the race, enjoy!

Mahalo for reading, Laura Greene

Maui’s nine canoe clubs had an exciting yet tiring week preparing for States – with a beach to clean, crews to practice, food and retail tents to set up and so much more, the week went by in a flash.

Arriving at Hanakao’o “Canoe” Beach early on Saturday morning, it was incredible to see the amount of people from across the state; paddlers, their koa canoes and their travelling support. It really was a sight to behold. As early as 6am, the beach was a hive of activity as hales prepared their crews, manned their concession stands or joined the ever-growing line to buy official States merchandise.

The day kicked off with an exhibition race for cancer survivors and Lahaina Canoe Club’s gorgeous koa, Lehia, was used in the event.

The exhibition race for cancer survivors. HCRA State Championships 2011.

The races were soon underway and, despite competing against them for state berths all season, it was great to support all the Maui crews as they went up against teams from across the state of Hawaii.

There were 40 Events in all and it’s amazing how quickly they all flew by. Over the course of the day, it started to become apparent that Maui’s nine canoe hales were having a very successful day.

The Mixed Novice B crews wait to paddle to their starting line. Picture taken from the roof of the Hyatt Regency Hotel by me, what a view!!

At LCC, we had three crews competing – our Mixed Novice Bs, our Novice A Men and our Master Men (Men’s 40). The MNBs got to experience states and racing in koa for the first time and did really well by finishing tenth out of 14 boats. Our MNA crew did well too, finishing sixth in their race. I think they would have finished higher still, were it not for an unfortunate paddle break for one of the crew.

But the masters men, oh what a race! It was the final event of the day and the guys had spent all day helping to cook, feed the masses, organize and make sure the day ran smoothly. Staying fresh and full of energy under the hot sun must have been hard, but they did it.

This crew registered the fastest time in the state at the Keiki O Maui regatta and, although they were one of the teams to beat, they were up against some strong opposition, especially in the form of Keauhou/team LiveStrong.

Event 40 - LCC's Master Men in lane one, Keauhou in lane two.

We had lane one, LiveStrong were in lane two. Game on. It felt like everyone came down to the beach for this race and I don’t know if I’m just biased but it felt like everyone was there to support LCC.

The battle for first place.

It was a close race, a really close race but Lahaina did it with their surge at the end – finishing first in a time of 7:12.05, Keauhou behind them in 7:13.92.

Champions! (L-R: Mark Shimer, Spud and Alan Kuiper)

Our Lahaina Canoe Club teams have had another strong season – the keiki and women are continuing to improve while the men’s teams continue to impress with their feats out on the water.

Our Novice A Men have made states for the third year in a row – incredible to think that they have consistently stayed on top for every single year that they’ve been paddling. Winning silver was superb last year – we’re very proud of them and can’t wait to cheer them on at our home beach tomorrow. Imua boys!

Our Master Men (Men’s 40 division) have had a great season too. For the third year in a row they’ve been crowned County Champions and have made states. Not only that but they also clocked in the fastest time in the entire state, at Lahaina’s own Keiki O Maui Regatta. Amazing! These guys won bronze last year and we’ll be there to support them tomorrow as they make their bid for a new medal to add to the collection (their mantelpieces must be groaning under the weight of all the medals they’ve been winning…) Good luck guys!

And of course of 12B boys, who had a fantastic season, will be racing in the 12a bracket, we can’t wait to see your race boys, imua!!!

Our Mixed Novice Bs also bought a lane and are sure to have a great experience racing the koa canoe at Hanakao’o Beach – enjoy guys, I look forward to cheering you on!

LCC's new hale, all ready for states with Lehia in the foreground. Pic courtesy Will Costa.

Our hale has even been spruced up for the occasion. Thanks to the hard work of many LCC members and a team of professional painters, the hale looks incredible, and just in time for states.

Tomorrow’s going to be a great day for paddling, for Maui, its canoe clubs

 and for Lahaina. See you at the beach. Imua Lahaina!

 Bye for now, Laura

Spud, hard at work on Lahaina's hale.

So we could share our Novice B Men’s delight when they won their first medal on Saturday at the John Wilmington III Regatta at Kahului Harbor.

The conditions were not bad, a little windy but certainly not as terrible as the weather forecast had predicted.

The Boys 12B won our first medal – they have had a fantastic season so far and have already booked themselves a lane at States, winning consecutive gold medals for the first four regattas and then silver in the last two. Imua boys, we’re so proud of you!

The Novice B Men were the next of our crews to place – it was a tightly contested race with just two seconds separating second place from third. But all the boys’ hard work paid off and they came in second with a time of 4:19:10. Imua Novice B Men!!

(L-R) David, Greg, Sule and Will. Zoltan and Caleb are not pictured but not forgotten!

Our Novice A Men also won silver in their race, with only fractions of seconds being the difference in time from second place through to fifth. The standings are very close in this division. Hawaiian leads with 16 points, Lahaina are in second with 13 and Na Kai Ewalu are third with 11. Wailea have eight, Kihei have 5 and both Napili and Kahana are on one point. So every point matters, go get ‘em boys!

Our gold medal of the day came from the Masters Men – who were back on top in Event 39. They lead the standings at the moment with 19, Wailea are breathing down their necks with 17, Kahana have 12 and Lae ‘Ula O Kai and Na Kai Ewalu have 4 and 3 points, respectively. It’s going to be an interesting race to the finish for these crews!

Unfortunately our Novice B Women didn’t get to race due to lack of available paddlers and our Novice A Women raced but didn’t place this week. But, there is always next week! Personally, I just got over having a bad back and I can’t wait to be back in the boat again.

There are now two regattas left and this weekend we’ll head to the windy shores of Kihei for the Moki Kalanikau Regatta where, hopefully, we can medal again. With one eye on the approaching long-distance season, we’ll get to paddle our boats back to Lahaina from Kihei on Sunday. I can’t wait!

But for now, well done to all the crews who paddled (especially if they medalled) on Saturday and Imua Lahaina!

The last time I wrote, I was still jubilant about winning our first medal of the season. When we set out at the start of the 2011 Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association (MCHCA) campaign, we wanted to win a medal. One medal, any color and we would be happy. We were and still are on cloud nine about our bronze medallions and we all gazed dreamily at them for an entire week, as they took pride of place in our respective homes. Only one problem… like the vampires you see in the movies drinking blood for the first time, we now have a taste of it and we want more!

He's got the taste for medals and he's still wearing his too.

And more we had. Just seven days later we placed again – finishing in third place to claim bronze at Napili’s Dougie Tihada Memorial Regatta. It was a close race, a really close race and our boat felt great. Hawaiian came in first with a time of 4:50.17,  Kahana in second on 4:53.75 then our crew with a time of 4:58.24. Na Kai Ewalu were fourth with 5:06.83,  Lae’ula O Kai in fifth on 5:16.85 and Napili in sixth on 5:30.08. Kihei had actually come in third, but they were disqualified for breaking the rules, so we took third. We were delighted, to say the least.

We were also delighted for our Boys 12B who, for the third time in as many weeks, struck gold at Napili’s regatta. Imua boys, we are so proud of you!

The next week it was back to Hanakao’o Beach for Kahana’s regatta and it was actually a tough week at Lahaina Canoe Club. We didn’t manage to get any first-place medals but took home some hardware; our Boys 12B winning silver, our Girls 15 won bronze (well done girls!), our Men’s Novice A also won bronze and I think that was just about it!

It didn’t feel so good in our boat – I think I could have gone faster and smoother up-front and, if we’d had a better lane I think we could have done better. But it doesn’t matter – we gave it everything and we’re looking forward to the next regatta on June 9!

So… we have got a taste for it now and we are chomping at the bit to have another try. We’ve got a bye week coming up, which gives us extra time to prepare for Na Kai ‘Ewalu’s John Wilmington III Regatta. Keep checking back to see how we do in Kahului Harbor in two week’s time.

Aloha for now, Laura