Hawai'i paddlers take aloha to N.Y.
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
Kea Pa'iaina is already predicting a chicken-skin moment during tomorrow's Liberty World Challenge outrigger canoe race.
Advertiser library photo • June 27, 1998
And it has nothing to do with winning the race.
Hawai'i paddlers won the Second Annual Liberty World Challenge Outrigger Canoe Championship in 1998, the first of four straight victories in New York Harbor.
Pa'iaina is a member of the Team Hawai'i crew that will participate in the 15-mile race. He is also a member of the Honolulu Fire Department.
Tomorrow's race will take place in New York Harbor. The course is scheduled to pass alongside the site of what used to be the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
"It's going to be an eerie feeling," Pa'iaina said. "I know already I going get chicken skin just looking at that place."
Thousands of lives, including those of hundreds of New York firefighters, were lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the twin towers.
The Liberty World Challenge, which will feature close to 100 teams from around the world, has been held in New York Harbor every year since 1997. Ever since its creation, the course was hyped because it passed alongside the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge and ... the World Trade Center.
Team Hawai'i — an elite crew of paddlers from various clubs around the state sponsored by the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau — has won the race four consecutive years. Three years ago, they celebrated their victory in one of the restaurants at the top of the World Trade Center.
"We didn't just paddle past it, we've all been in there," said team captain Walter Guild. "So when the disaster unfolded, we all called each other and said, 'My god, we were right there.' "
"There was some discussion of us not going this year," Guild added. "But we felt like we needed to go there to show that the people of Hawai'i still have the aloha spirit. We wanted to show that we're all in this together."
Advertiser library photo • June 26, 1999
Guild said Team Hawai'i is planning to present lei in front of the "ground zero" site.
The Hawai‘i team paddled past the World Trade Center en route to its second straight victory in the Liberty World Challenge in 1999.
It will be an especially emotional presentation for Pa'iaina, who works out of the Kuakini station on O'ahu.
Last June — his first year with Team Hawai'i — Pa'iaina took a new Honolulu Fire Department T-shirt with him to New York so that he could trade for a Fire Department of New York T-shirt. He eventually found a trading partner.
Pa'iaina still has the FDNY T-shirt, but he has no idea what happened to its original owner.
"There's a real chance that he died trying to rescue people on Sept. 11," Pa'iaina said. "But I never got his name, so I don't know for sure."
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, many stories focused on the nationwide fraternity of firefighters. Hawai'i, Pa'iaina said, was no exception.
"That could have been any one of us doing the same thing," he said. "Those guys are heroes. But it's not just the firefighters. It's all the people of New York. That's why this year's race is going to be so emotional."
As far as the actual race competition, Team Hawai'i is once again the overwhelming favorite, although an all-star crew from California is expected to provide competition tomorrow.
"We're expecting it to be a tough race," Guild said. "Every year, the field gets closer and closer."
Members of the crew are: Pa'iaina, Guild, Jim Foti, John Foti, Mike Judd and Thibert Lussiaa.
• Hamilton Island winners: Team New Zealand/Hawai'i and the Team Hawai'i Senior Masters dominated the Coca-Cola Hamilton Island Cup last week at Hamilton Island, Australia.
Team New Zealand/Hawai'i, last year's Moloka'i Hoe champion, won both the 16-kilometer and 42-kilometer races. The 42-kilometer course is considered the premier race of the three-day event.
"It was really flat and calm, so it turned into a race of strength of conditioning," said paddler Bill Pratt. "We got the lead early and pretty much held it the whole way."
The winning crew consisted of five paddlers from New Zealand (Maui Kjeldsen, Andrew Penny, Rob Kaiwai, Bo Herbert and Woogie Marsh) and four from Hawai'i (Pratt, Raven Aipa, Kea Pa'iaina and Karel Tresnak Jr.).
The Team Hawai'i Senior Masters also won both the 16-kilometer and 42-kilometer races in the division for paddlers age 45 and older.
In the 42-kilometer race, Team Hawai'i established a new course record for senior masters.
Members of the winning crew consisted of paddlers from various clubs around the state: Sam Alama, Fred Delos Santos, Kamoa Kalama, Jimmy Kincaid, Leighton Look, Bruce Lucas, Rocky Owens, Greg Poole and Afa Tuaolo.
More than 100 teams participated in the event, which is considered the largest outrigger canoe race in Australia.
