Kai 'Opua wins third Na Wahine O Ke Kai crown
 |
| Relief paddlers from Kai 'Opua get ready to make a switch near Black Point for the final stretch of Na Wahine O Ke Kai.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser |
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Kai 'Opua Canoe Club once again reigned supreme as the queens of outrigger canoe paddling.
The club from Kailua, Kona, won the Hawaii Modular Space Na Wahine O Ke Kai for the third consecutive year yesterday.
The winning time of 5 hours, 52 minutes, 55 seconds was well ahead of runner-up Team Eyecatcher's 5:55:36.
It is the first time in the 24-year history of the event that a Hawai'i-based club has won three consecutive Na Wahine O Ke Kai races. OffShore of California won a record six in a row from 1986-91.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
The 41-mile race from Hale O Lono Harbor, Moloka'i, to Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki, is regarded as the women's world championship of long-distance outrigger canoe paddling.
Kai 'Opua wins Na Wahine O Ke Kai.
The third — and perhaps final — jewel in Kai 'Opua's crown may be the most cherished.
"This one is the best feeling for me," said Beanie Heen, who has coached Kai 'Opua to all three victories. "We've worked hard since day one, but I think we worked the hardest for this one."
Added paddler Carrie Sue Hendricks: "Each one felt great, but this one is the most rewarding. There was some real solid competition this year. All the top teams were here and we still came out on top."
Members of the winning crew: Ronona Della Cioppa, Patty Eames, Nicki Enos, Jymi Friday, Beth Graves, Hendricks, Cherisse Keli'i, Jackie Taylor, Cheryl Villegas and Amy Young.
Nine of those 10 (all but Friday) returned from last year's championship team.
Light trade winds and swells of 3 to 5 feet across the Kaiwi Channel provided assistance for the 54 crews in the race. However, a receding tide worked against the paddlers, and made for a relatively slow pace. The winning time was more than 28 minutes short of the record.
Still, the race for the lead proved to be fast and furious between Kai 'Opua and Team Eyecatcher. From the start, those two teams broke away from the rest of the pack.
"It was a great surfing race the whole way," said Taylor, who steered the Kai 'Opua canoe for most of the race. "It went back and forth, back and forth."
Team Eyecatcher — consisting of champion solo paddlers from O'ahu, Maui, Kaua'i, New Zealand and Canada — took the early lead.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"We were hoping for surf and we got it," said Noe Sawyer, who steered the Team Eyecatcher canoe. "We just tried to take advantage of it and run our own race."
Carrie Sue Hendricks, front, Cherisse Kelii, left and Nicki Enos are saluted as victors as they arrive at Duke Kahanamoku beach.
According to Taylor, Kai 'Opua never thought about trying a roundabout course to pass Team Eyecatcher. Instead, their strategy was simple: "Just run them down."
And so they did.
Kai 'Opua took the lead a little more than halfway across the channel and never relinquished it. They made the final margin appear comfortable with an impressive run in the "sloppy" ocean off Hawai'i Kai.
"The tide was backing up, so you need more strength to get through the current," Heen explained. "And we have some strength."
Taylor added: "A majority of the race was about surfing. But in that one section, our power came in handy."
Winning experience also played a role, as eight of the 10 Kai 'Opua paddlers have been on all three championship teams.
However, Heen said that the core of the team may split up next year.
"For the last two months, we've had nothing but a paddling life," said Hendricks, who celebrated her 30th birthday yesterday. "As fun and rewarding as this is, it really is draining."
Perhaps knowing that this might be their last run together, Hendricks described practices this year as "the hardest we've ever had."
"We put in a lot of miles," Heen added. "But we needed every one."
In contrast, Team Eyecatcher does not practice together.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
"We gave them a scare," Sawyer said. "We're happy with how we did."
Kai 'Opua padders are greeted at Duke Kahanamoku Beach after becoming the first Hawai'i-based crew to win three straight Na Wahine O Ke Kai titles.
Members of Team Eyecatcher: Sawyer, Kelly Fey, Donna Kahakui, Lauren Spalding, Theresa Felgate, Dane Ward, Jackie Carswell, Margie Kawaiaea, Corinna Gage and Joanna Felloon.
They dedicated the race to Mark Brewer, who was lost at sea in May. His wife, Mary Brewer, is the founder of the team, and followed Team Eyecatcher on an escort boat yesterday.
Mooloolabah placed third at 5:57:38. It was the first time in four years that an elite crew from Australia participated.
"I reckon we lost it in the first 30 minutes," said team captain Lisa Curry. "They got a jump on us and we never caught them. I'm still not sure why we had such a slow start, but we don't like coming in second or third, so we'll try again next year."
Outrigger continued its streak of consistent success with a fourth-place finish at 6:01:20. It has placed in the top five of every Na Wahine O Ke Kai.
Yesterday's result was more impressive considering that Outrigger paddled in a koa canoe. All the other top teams raced in fiberglass canoes, which are supposed to be faster.
Surf Sport, another collection of solo paddlers from various locales, placed seventh overall and won the masters division for paddlers age 35 and older. Their time of 6:15:12 was not a masters record, but their seventh place finish was the best by a masters crew in Na Wahine O Ke Kai history.
"We didn't know what to expect," said coach Paul Gay. "We were shooting for top 10 (overall) and we got that, so we're happy."
Their crew consisted of paddlers from O'ahu, Kaua'i, the Big Island, California, Wisconsin, Australia and Tahiti.
Second-place Newport Aquatic Center of California came in 18 minutes later. JoJo Toeppner, the only paddler to participate in every Na Wahine O Ke Kai, was in that crew.
"One more and I get to 25 (Na Wahine races)," said Toeppner, who was a member of 10 previous championship OffShore crews. "Every one is still fun for me."
Another Kai 'Opua crew placed 21st overall and won the senior masters division (ages 45 and older) at 6:36:22. Second-place Kailua was 20 minutes behind.
Open teams were allowed to rotate 10 paddlers into the six seats in the canoe; masters teams could rotate 12 paddlers.
See final results in For the Record.
