Kane'ohe Canoe Club opens with victory

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The young season is under way for the Kane'ohe Canoe Club.

The Waikiki Beach Boys' women's novice B paddlers captured their race at Ke'ehi Lagoon in yesterday's season-opening regatta for Na 'Ohana O Na Hui Wa'a. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

More than 1,000 paddlers participated in the day-long event. The regatta featured 36 races in various age divisions, ranging from 12-and-younger to 55-and-older.

"To start off like this is a good sign," said Kane'ohe head coach Clint Anderson. "But it's a long season, everybody knows that. This is only the first one — it doesn't mean that much."

Kane'ohe amassed 83 points over the 36 races. Perennial power Lokahi was second with 70.

"Seems like the same thing over and over for the last couple years — us and Lokahi," Anderson said. "We know already it's going to be a battle with them all year long; that's why we don't want to make too much of a big thing out of this."

Koa Kai placed third overall with 43 points and won the AA division for "medium-sized" clubs.

North Shore, competing as its own club for the first time, won the A division for small clubs with 10 points. In previous years, North Shore and Kalihi Kai paddled as a combined team.

But the biggest story of the day was the performance of the Kane'ohe youth paddlers.

In the 13 youth races, Kane'ohe had nine first-place finishes, one second and two thirds. That resulted in 52 points for the club.

"I was hoping that some other clubs would win (youth races) and take away points," Lokahi head coach Robert Viernes said. "But Kane'ohe just dominated with their kids."

The Kane'ohe boys were especially impressive, sweeping every race: 12-younger, 13-younger, 14-younger, 15-younger, 16-younger and 18-younger.

Maota "Ace" Esau, one of the Kane'ohe boys coaches, said yesterday's victorious crews were a mix of returning and rookie paddlers.

"We use the same theory of training for everybody," Esau said. "We run hard three days a week and then we put them in the (canoe) for two to three hours a day. The boys put out good results, but they work hard for it."

Anderson said it helps that many of the Kane'ohe youth paddlers play other sports.

"Most of them play volleyball or basketball, so they're good athletes," Anderson said. "And that also means they come to us in shape."

They also have established a winning tradition. Kane'ohe has had the strongest youth contingent in Hui Wa'a for the last five years.

"For the ones who have been with us, it's in their hearts that they can do well," Anderson said. "And we expect them to do well."

Lokahi's youth crews scored 21 points.

"For what we have, I thought our kids did good," Viernes said. "(Kane'ohe) just had too much. I knew we weren't going to catch them after that."

As expected, Lokahi rallied behind its perennially strong women's crews. Of Lokahi's six race victories, five came from its women's crews (novice A, freshman, sophomore, senior, and open-4). The other victory came from its future women (girls 18-and-younger).

"We were actually short (of paddlers) today," said Mike Cushnie, the Lokahi women's coach. "But we put it together. A lot of our women have been there before so they know what it takes."

The crew of Jennifer Thompson, Carol Jaxon, Dy Valdez, Karen Dunai, Bozo Vierra and Iwa Bush won the prestigious women's senior race in convincing fashion. They completed the 1 1/2-mile course in 13 minutes, 1.99 seconds, which was 52 seconds faster than Waikiki Beach Boys.

Senior women is considered the top race for females in regattas, and Lokahi has now won it 47 consecutive times against Hui Wa'a competition, a streak dating to 1997.

"There's some pressure, but we train hard enough to meet that pressure," Vierra said. "We look at it as a challenge more than pressure."

The Lokahi women even said that they did not achieve all their goals yesterday, despite winning all of the women's open-age races.

"We try to focus on times rather than the competition," Vierra said. "In (the senior race) we didn't get the time we wanted, so we know we have to work harder."

Kane'ohe secured the overall regatta victory by winning four adult races: mixed novice B, men's golden masters, mixed masters and mixed senior masters. With that, Kane'ohe won 13 of the 36 races in the regatta.

After the regatta, Anderson gathered the Kane'ohe paddlers in a huddle and told them: "We won and that's a good thing because we worked hard together for this. But it's nothing to brag about. We need to stay respectful and stick together as a family, win or lose."

Na Keiki O Ka Mo'i won the prestigious men's senior race. The crew of Danny Sanchez, Eric Soo, Rollen Padello, Joe Kanana, Hartwell Afong and Chris Gibson completed the 1 1/2-mile course in 11:36.10 to edge Koa Kai by seven seconds.

The next Hui Wa'a regatta is scheduled for Sunday at Hale'iwa Beach Park.

The O'ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association will open its season on Sunday at Ke'ehi Lagoon.