Readers from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe…?

The calendar year is a year of two halves, where one is dominated by paddling and the other six months are palpably not.

You see, for us paddlers the sport is all-consuming. When the season is on, you eat, sleep, breathe and virtually live in the canoe. When you aren’t in it, you’re talking about it, nursing sore muscles and completely swept up in the paddling scene.

When the season ends, there is a big void to fill. Some take up one-man paddling, others turn to surfing and I’m pretty sure all of us manage to stay in the water one way or another.

In one respect, it’s good to have a break but you really miss those workouts. And those constant early mornings you swore you hated, well… you start to miss them. Just a little bit.

I’m so glad I took up surfing around the same time I started to paddle, I don’t know what I’d do with no water time and nothing to keep my shoulders in a semi-permanent state of ache.

On a completely unrelated note, it’s great to see that this blog has stormed past the 15,000 views that I was targeting by the end of 2012. I thank all of you for continuing to visit the site and of course, to all the accidental people who stumble across it, I hope you have a read while you’re here.

It’s funny to see which countries represent the largest amount of readers. The USA and UK are well up there in the leading spots but more surprisingly it’s funny to see visitors from further afield; Peru, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands, weighing in with a lot of readers this year. Iraq, Zimbabwe and Azerbaijan, I can only assume they were lost… but you never know.

Thanks again for coming back to the blog, I really do appreciate it and I’m thinking I should update more…

Until next time, Laura

Onwards and Upwards

To sum up our first two races of the 2012 Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association (MCHCA) season, I would have to say that things can only get better.

We’ve always experienced our most successful races in the waters of Hanakao’o Beach and home advantage certainly plays its part in paddling as much as with other sports.

Our first two races – Hawaiian Canoe Club’s John M Lake Regatta and Wailea Canoe Club’s Kamehameha Regatta, held in Kahului Harbor and Ka Lae Pohaku Beach in Kihei, have not yielded much in the way of points. They haven’t yielded much for us girls at all. Unless you count disqualification, that is.

LCC’s keiki and women’s race boat – the Makana Aloha.

Two weeks running, we have been taken out of the game and have DQ’d. This isn’t a rare occurrence, for those who may not know, it can actually happen a lot, for many different reasons.

Fielding an illegal paddler is one such reason, as is starting over the starting line, interference with other boats, to name a few.

We’ve been having a bit of trouble staying in our lane so far and have had a couple of minor collisions with other wa’a. But all’s fair in love and paddling, right?

It’s been a little disappointing but also a learning curve – we now know what we don’t want to do and we’ll keep pushing to get back on track and improve race by race.

At least we’re able to laugh about it afterwards and that’s the main thing – to keep smiles on everyone’s faces.

Our keiki crews are giving us something to smile about  - The Girls 14 crew took four place and won a point for the LCC hale, The Boys 16 took third place in their race in a time of 4:20.32. All the other keiki crews did great and we’re proud to have them representing LCC.

Our Freshmen men, paddling together for the second time since the season began, took silver in their race – having come in third the previous week. With no practices together, apart from their races on Saturdays it’s scary to think what might happen if they did practice.

Lahaina’s 2012 Freshmen – Racing to Train.

The next race day will be here before we know it – Lae ‘Ula O Kai’s Mayor’s Umeke  Regatta  happening this Saturday at Kahului Harbor.

Hopefully things will get better for our Novice A crew. Fingers crossed…

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon with more.

Bye for now, Laura.

One Month To Go

Hard to believe but our first race of the 2012 season is now less than a month away. We’ve been practicing with more regularity for the last four weeks, working on our timing, our technique and getting our shoulders back into paddling shape. We’re getting there…

The first race of the 2012 MCHCA season is Hawaiian Canoe Club’s John M. Lake Regatta, to be held at Kahului Harbor on June 2. The first of three regattas to be held at the Harbor this year.

In the coming weeks, the girls and I will be working on our sprints and getting ready for that first race but it’s going to be a busy few weeks for us outside of the boat too.

Getting ready to go on the water at 7am this week. Napili’s black and yellow fleet, Lahaina’s orange wa’a and Kahana’s green canoes.

As we have a bye this year, Lahaina Canoe Club will not be holding a regatta. This makes for a nice break, as staging a regatta is a big task. A very enjoyable task but with very small numbers of club members, it can be tough. So, our main fundraiser is going to be the 32nd Annual Restaurant Races, to be held on May 12. (for more info please contact RRC2012@lahainacanoeclub.net)

Restaurant Races is a great day and lots of fun. To see what happened on RR Day over the last two years you can click here and here to see how the event unfolded.

Hopefully we’ll raise lots of much-needed funds this year and sign up some new Novice Bs for the 2012 season. New members are what we need to bolster our ranks! Until then, all hands are on deck – signing up restaurant crews for the races, helping them practice, hustling to find silent auction items and much more.

In other club news, the Master Men crew has signed up to compete in the 2012 Liberty Challenge race, hosted by New York Outrigger. Yes, New Yorkers paddle too. To quote from their website: “Each summer crews from across the country, Europe and the Pacific travel to New York City to compete in its kinetic waters.  Crews not only have to gauge the strong tidal currents with their dramatic and sudden shifts, but they must also negotiate the vast number of ferries, cruise ships, tour boats, barges, tankers and pleasure craft that fill New York Harbor, the East River and the Hudson River.”

Sounds like an adventure. A chilly adventure. For more info, check out the New York Outrigger website. Can’t wait to see pictures from this race!

Well, that’s an update on what’s happening at LCC right now. I’ll be back soon with news about the up-coming season and our ups and downs along the way.

Keep paddling! Aloha, Laura

2012. A New Season Beckons…

The first Monday in April and it’s the first day of our new training schedule for 2012. We were on the water by 7am and it felt great to be up early to paddle with the girls.

We’ve been going out at least once a week for the last month under the tutelage of Franklin, who has been helping us find our timing and technique no end.

Now, we’ve got four days a week to get whipped into shape for the 2012 MCHCA season.

New adult practice times have been announced and they are as follows. Designated women’s practices are in bold.

Monday 7:00am

Tuesday 12:00pm and 5:30pm

Wednesday 7:00am

Thursday 12:00pm and 5:30pm

Saturday 7:45am

All times are times to be in the water. Can’t wait for the next one, see you there!!

Steering clinic tomorrow at Canoe Beach

Imagine boarding a cruise ship with no captain, getting on a train with no driver or a plane with no pilot. You wouldn’t like to do it and neither would I. Launching  an outrigger canoe without a steersperson is not much different.

The toughest role in a wa’a has to go to seat six – keeping the boat (and its inhabitants) in line is not an easy job. As well as reading the ocean, keeping the canoe on its course, dealing with tricky conditions, encouraging your crew and having a responsibility for their safety, you are trying to paddle, poke, make turns, not huli and so much more.

Not that I am speaking from any great wealth of experience. I tried steering once. Once. After huli-ing the boat and its crew onto the sand at Canoe Beach I threw in the towel. That was after a grand total of about twenty minutes in seat six. Hmph.

What do you mean I have to steer?

But really, like rigging, we should all know how to steer. Going back to the emergency situation scenario – you don’t want to be in one, without your steersperson  and not knowing what to do. Even if we all know just the basics, it may very well turn into the kind of knowledge that can save your life.

And that’s where Lahaina Canoe Club comes in! LCC are holding a steering clinic tomorrow at 9am sharp at Canoe Beach. The session will be open to all and everyone is also welcome to sign up for the coming 2012 season.

If you’d like a little more info about steering an outrigger canoe, visit this link.

See you at the beach, Ho‘omakakaukau!

Aloha for now, Laura.