Posted on: Monday, August 18, 2003

New Zealand/Hawai'i paddlers surf to victory

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

There are two reasons second place was the most interesting topic after yesterday's Duke Kahanamoku Long Distance Race.

First, first-place Team New Zealand/Hawai'i dominated virtually from start to finish, making for a hardly dramatic race.

Second, Lanikai overcame a capsized escort boat — which was last seen floating out to sea off Makapu'u — to finish in second place.

"You could say it was a crazy race for us," said Lanikai paddler John Foti.

Team New Zealand/ Hawai'i completed the 24-mile course from Kailua Beach to Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki, in 2 hours, 58 minutes, 5 seconds. Lanikai came in more than seven minutes later at 3:02:10.

The winning crew: Raven Aipa, Maui Kjeldsen, Thibert Lussiaa, Rick Nu'u, Kea Pa'iaina, Andrew Penny, Greg Poole, Bill Pratt and Karel Tresnak Jr.

The race was for six-person canoes, but each team was allowed to use nine paddlers. While six paddled in the canoe, three followed in an escort boat, available for relief changes.

"We just found a whole lot of surf and connected all the waves," said Tresnak, who steered the winning canoe. "We were on waves for two to three minutes at a time."

Team New Zealand/Hawai'i established a lead less than 30 minutes into the race and kept increasing it the rest of the way.

After powering through the "sketchy, messy" area off Makapu'u, Team New Zealand/Hawai'i started riding the 4- to 5-foot swells off Hawai'i Kai to put away the race.

"I knew once we got out of Makapu'u, we'd be OK," Pa'iaina said. "We have (Tresnak) back there and he was killing it in the surf. He made it fun for us."

At one stage midway through the race, Team New Zealand/ Hawai'i was surfing so fast along a wave that the duct tape holding down the canoe's canvas cover ripped off. That allowed water to fill the canoe the rest of the way, but by then, it hardly mattered.

"We just had to bail (the water) a lot more than we normally would," Pa'iaina said.

Kjeldsen, one of three New Zealand paddlers on the crew, added: "We knew we were moving really fast because we kept looking back and the other guys were getting farther and farther back."

That's because Lanikai was dealing with disaster.

According to Foti, a broken bilge pump allowed water to slowly fill the escort boat. By the time Lanikai reached Rabbit Island, the back half of the boat was underwater.

"It was a little scary," Foti admitted.

Foti was one of the three relief paddlers aboard the escort boat when the decision was made to "abandon ship." He said the boat eventually capsized and started drifting out to sea, bottom-up. Several of the Lanikai paddlers had their wallets and other personal items on board, and there was not enough time to gather everything.

"Once it started happening, it happened fast and we were scrambling," Foti said. "Plus, we were thinking about the race ... it was just a mess."

Fortunately, the escort boat for a second Lanikai crew was nearby for an emergency pick-up. Unfortunately, the six paddlers in the Lanikai canoe were left to paddle on their own in the most crucial stretch of the course.

"We had a feeling something was wrong when we didn't see them for a while," paddler Mike Judd said. "Thankfully, nobody got hurt. But as far as the race goes, it was tough to have something like that happen."

The six Lanikai paddlers in the canoe — Judd, Aaron Creps, Jeff Cummings, Bruce Lukas, Kekoa Bruhn and Jim Foti — paddled alone for about an hour. Normally in long-distance races, relief changes occur every 15 to 20 minutes.

"Sometimes, it works to your advantage when you have to reach deep down and test your character like that," Judd said.

Lanikai was eventually able to get a spare escort boat going, and the relief paddlers caught up to the canoe off Portlock. Before that, Outrigger provided some sportsmanlike assistance by handing out bottles of water to the Lanikai canoe.

Outrigger coach Kala Judd said jokingly: "We figured they would all grab the water and stop paddling."

Once the new escort boat arrived, Lanikai passed Outrigger for second place down the stretch of the course. Outrigger, which won the race last year, placed third, 15 seconds behind Lanikai.

Kailua won the women's race at Kailua Beach, completing the six-mile course in 53 minutes, 9.31 seconds. Hui Lanakila came in second, more than two minutes later.