As you may already know, our beloved Jeannie Sakovich left us on Saturday, January 13, 2023 after a short battle with cancer.
We would like to extend this invitation to the paddling community to join the makule crews and Jeannie’s family on Saturday, April 13, 2024 7am at Bayfront as we assemble to remember and memorialize her in a paddle out to spread some of her ashes in Hilo Bay. She loved paddling; more accurately, she loved paddling in Hilo Bay with Keaukaha Canoe Club so itʻs appropriate that we release a portion of her ashes into the bay with her friends and family being a witness to her new found freedom. We will gather at 7 a.m. for pule and spiritual guidance; Jeannieʻs makule crew will begin the paddle out and we invite you to be present as we paddle out towards Moku Ola where family members will be able to gather and experience the spirit of aloha as we lay her to rest. It is our hope that you will join us on your oc-1, SUP, or kayaks. Following the sprinkling of her ashes, we will have a few pop up tents in the lower parking lot and a selection of pupu’s and would like you to join us in celebrating her life and remembering her smile, her thoughtfulness and her willingness to be there for the team. Will you join us? If youʻd like to bring something, please bring loose bio-degradable flowers.
Also, Jeannieʻs family is hosting her Celebration of Life the day prior, on Friday, April 12th, at the Hilo Yacht Club from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. All family and friends are welcome to attend.
It built into blustery afternoon day for the San Cann race in Hilo. Fortunately the morning hours weren’t quite as robust as long course and short course paddlers took off and the high school regatta was getting underway.
We had some strong paddlers on both long and short courses and it seems everyone is getting faster. Results are listed in order of finish times.
Full short course results are here. (For short course Open division was 18 to 59.)
Grant Kaaua (1st Mopen, 7th overall)
Nik and Noha Dahm (2nd Oc2)
Nate Osorio (4th Mopen)
Greg Kane (1st M70)
Talan Nicolas (3rd Jr)
David Hafele (2nd M60)
Casey Morris (1st MNovice)
Whitney Dahm (2nd Wopen)
Congrats! I’m sure I missed someone and there were some OC2 names I didn’t recognize. Apologies in advance. Keep up the training and the racing.
Gorge Downwind Championship Registration
TODAY! Yes the 14th at 3pm HST registration opens for the Columbia River Gorge Race happening in July. Sign up early. Find a canoe and lets charge that river for a week long surf session in Washington/Oregon.
It’s that time again. OC1 stall holders need to renew their 2024 rental prior to Feb. 1 when we change keys. Paddlers need to also pay dues for OC6 Canoe use and get your HCRA waivers signed.
New HCRA Waiver Process
Login into your account, sign the forms and pay the dues owed. You will be required to print an HCRA waver, sign it, then scan or photograph it, then upload it to our website.
This is a new process but it will allow coaches to access your signed waiver for regattas and long distance races without having to repeat this multiple times.
Dues $100 / year, OC1 stalls are $120 with $50 refundable deposit.
Lost a Key?
If you need to replace a key, log into the website. Go to the menu->Halau->waitlist. There you’ll see a button “REQUEST REPLACEMENT KEY”. Click this ONCE. It will send a notification to us and it will reset your deposit.
Go to menu->Aloha->KCC BILLING SUMMARY and you should see the $50 deposit is due. Once this deposit is paid you can pick up your replacement key (instructions will be emailed).
Technical Difficulties?
You might experience a problem with getting your account renewed. If you do, take careful note of the details and explain it when you Contact Us for help (screenshots can help). Remember we are just volunteers, so patience and understanding is appreciated.
No Website Account?
If you’re interested in joining the club, use the Contact Us page. Please let us know some general information about yourself:
Why you want to join
Previous Experience (None is fine, but any water sports related experience is nice to know about)
Gender and age group (<40, 40-49, 50-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70+)
We will discuss options with you and try to find a fit.
Team Jerseys
We plan on using the same blue 2023 jerseys and they can be found on our Store. There has been a few additions to the options including a couple other styles of synthetic jerseys and a black background version too for variety on non-race days.
January 6 was a bit early for the season opening race and there was a High School Regatta in Hilo, but the turn out overall was good.
Don’t miss Stan Cann in Hilo on the 13th.
Short course was about 5 miles with long course about 8. We saw some new Keaukaha paddlers out on the course. Congratulations for getting out there and experiencing the next level. Even coming in last is an accomplishment in finishing the race.
If your name was missed below, please let us know.
Hilo Bay will be hosting World Sprints August 13th to 24th but before you setup your training plan, you’ve got to qualify. Hawai’i Time Trials will be held in Hilo on April 27 and 28 of 2024.
Time trials will consist of V1 and V6 canoes. Trials are 500m course which is one length and no turns. You’ll have to stay in your lane (marked like swimming pool lanes with floats). And you can have a boat holder if necessary (sometimes strong winds require holders).
If you’re interested in putting together a crew or going V1 here’s the requirements.
To file an intent, you do not need your crew roster. If you want to just do V1, you still have to pay $20. If you and a buddy want to just to race V1 then $40 ($20 each). This seems counter to what the instructions say, however 2 people have now verified this is how the charges are working.
Where you save is if you want to do V6 or V12 (no V12 for time trials, V6 teams that qualify can build V12 crew), you can sign up those slots and split the $100 and other fees with other V6/V12 teams. The problem is 1 person will need to be responsible for those crews and getting payments and informing them of dates and requirements and submitting all their papers. So be aware of how this system works.
Required
Passports for all paddlers, no exceptions
File and Pay for your Intent BEFORE Dec. 2 2023.
$100 per intent and $20 per V1 paddler
update: If you just do V1, it’s $20.
File intent for V1/V6/V12 crews (no roster needed)
update: $100 covers 1 or multiple V6/V12 entries
50% more charge if filed late
Clubs can file multiple intents ($100 if 1 or more V6/V12 and $20 each V1)
Keauhou put on 2023’s last one man race in their beautiful part of the island. And for it being a shorter race like our Halloween Race, we still had a great turn out and raised funds for a good cause.
Keaukaha paddlers didn’t slack off with a lot of first place showings on both courses.
KCC 1st Place Top Guns included:
Rusty Crabbe
Tyron Nicolas
Jeffrey Clemenson
Ali’i Youderian
Kawaipio Kauahi
Niklas Dahm & Noah Dahm (Short Course Overall Winners – Time for the long course boys?)
We also had multiple paddlers out there pulling in 2nds and more too. Great job. Let’s get to training and smash 2024. Full Results here and below.
Long
Short
2023 End of Season Results
You have to complete at least 4 races in 1 category to get included in the ranking. And we had lots of paddlers on the podium. Here’s all the results from our club (hopefully I didn’t miss anyone). In no particular order…
A hot week of racing in Samoa filled with some jaw dropping action and finishing with a heart stopping V6 Open Men race. But First let’s start with Day 1 Race 2.
Waiolu Publico was the first Big Island Jr. paddler to test the waters in a V1. Live coverage primarily focused on the top 4 paddlers and crews, which made for some frustrating viewing but due to the large race course coverage was limited.
Live action with crowd participation on the live youtube comments.
Waiolu gave a good chase on the first lap only to get pulled from the course along with 2 other paddlers who didn’t make the time out limits for each lap. For those watching the stream it was unclear why some paddlers seemed to disappear, but to keep the races flowing quickly paddlers were kept to strict time limits
You can watch the replays from the live stream from Waiolu’s race here:
Results from all the events can be found on webscorer. Just search by race name an type in IVF.
That same day Race 3 had the Men’s V6 40 crews with Keahi and Tito for Team Hawai’i and Nik for Team Germany.
Men’s 40 Start
They paddled to an impressive 6th place only 9 seconds behind Tahiti and 6:40 behind 1st. Impressive finish for a crew that had to be pieced together quickly due to Lanikai dropping out and passport issues limiting crew members. And Germany finished 11th, 12:53 behind 1st place.
Mens 40 V6
Day 2 Race 3 were Men & Women J16 V6 with a Koyd crews in both races. The Men J16 finished 5th 14:12 behind first and the Women J16 crew finished 4th 14:41 behind first place. Catch the action here.
Men & Women J16 V6 Race
Day 3 had Ali’i in the V1 race 1 and it was a wild ride. The leading paddler from Tahiti had a huli by a reef and that set him back a couple of positions and Ali’i fought hard to gain ground on the leaders. In a wild finish Ali’i managed to out-surf the Tahitian paddler crossing the line 3rd by 0.009 seconds over 4th place. It was an amazing finish to watch. Check it out.
Men’s J19 V1 Race
The Heart Stopper
The last race of the week is the mens open division and Jose was paddling with Team Hawai’i along with Chase, Trey, Avans, Jack, and Keakua.
Boat wake through the start line caused some issues and maybe collisions
The camera crews focused primarily on the top 4 teams and Tahiti and New Zealand looked unstoppable. They hammered out to the front early. But there was some action in the mid-field as Hawai’i began to slowly pull up and pass crews in the large chop and spray.
By the end of the 2nd lap they had moved into 3rd when they pulled an amazing move to push out New Zealand at the turning mark.
Avans forces themselves inside of New Zealand moving into 2nd
Tahiti still had a sizable lead, but there was a full lap to go and it was a full on battle. The video was amazing to watch from start to finish but here’s the spoilers.
In an unbelievable push, Hawai’i kept gaining on Tahiti. Then the Tahitian stroker had a massive cramp approaching the finish line. He looked like he might have been suffering from a heart attack he was incapacitated but you can see in this still as Hawai’i pulled up next to them he’s trying to recover (Red Jersey) and keep his team in the game. He fought hard to keep paddling and was in obvious pain.
Team Hawai’i had speed and desire and in the end put a 28 second gap on them to win gold from a massive deficit off the start. The odds won’t be spoken.
Putting it all on the line to become world champs.
If you do one thing, take some time to watch this race. It’s better than any Superbowl.
There were a lot of other great paddlers out there and Hawai’i teams that placed high, including more 1st places. Browse through the results pages and see how strongly they finished in a world class event.
Saturday’s race was 9 miles in beautiful weather. There were 2 crews from Keaukaha an open mix and open women’s crew. Due to our trailer missing some padding and the difficulty of towing down the steep hill, we were lucky to be able to borrow a couple of canoes
The open mix placed 18th over all and 3rd in their division! and open women were 30th over all and 6th in their division.
Open Women – Mix Plate Crew, ages 32 to 68 in the “Ohana Wa’a”Open Mix Crew Hammahs
Great job paddlers!
You know who was there too!
IVF World Distance 2023 Live Stream
Two races today – Sunday! Wai’olu V1 and 40’s V6. Keahi and Tito are paddling in 40’s together taking the place of Lanikai’s crew who were unable to attend. And Nik Dahm who is paddling with the German team in both Open and 40’s V6 events.
A surprise to many racers is there’s a hard time limit on your first lap. If you are beyond that time, they pull you off the course and don’t allow you to complete the full circuit, even if you’re doing well against the paddlers around you. During the first couple V1 races many paddlers were pulled from the course. While this is less likely to happen to the faster V6 teams, it’s a disappointment for those who don’t get to complete the course.
It’s not a type of battery. Enter the States Regatta with more than 20 qualified crews and you’ll find yourself in the top division. With 21 crews qualifying for the first time ever, we joined the battle with Puna against the big ‘Oahu and Maui clubs.
At the halfway mark Keaukaha was in 4th ahead of 3 other clubs and only a few points behind 3rd. Then we hit our dead zone with 5 empty races followed by 3 more empty races. This allowed other clubs to keep climbing and create a gap.
AAAA Division Points throughout the day
The bigger picture is we had more points than 50 clubs and we finished in the top 5. In the AAAA we beat 2 clubs with significantly more crews racing: Manu O Ke Kai had 35 events and Kailua Canoe Club had 29 events to our 21.
The battle for the top was also very heated with Hawaiian Canoe Club who was strong all day long got slowly edged out in the adult events with only a 3 point separation at the end of the day.
Top 3 divisions by Number of Qualifying Events
Compare this to AAA which is 20 events. We had just 1 more event than AAA, but pulled in 64 more points than the first and second place AAA clubs (226 vs 162).
Hardware
Primarily powered by the kids, our medal count was impressive. And all our crews placed high, even if not on the podium.
Medal Totals
Ranked by number Golds, then Silver then Bronze we were #3. In totals we were #4. This puts us at #3 right behind the biggest 2 clubs in Hawai’i and ahead of many other larger clubs. So while we might not have had as many points or events, we ran a strong game in every event.
Legend
Special mention needs to go to our very own George Thomas. He was the oldest hammah in the entire regatta racing in the 70’s crew at 85.
Crews Dues
We couldn’t have gotten into AAAA without the help of all the club paddlers who paid their dues in training hard and racing hard all season. There were ups and downs and mistakes that were made, but if we stick together and try to work out problems we’ll understand each other better and come out stronger together even if the process can be messy at times.
Remember the first time each of us dipped our paddles into the water it wasn’t pretty; I proudly held my paddle backwards. It takes a lot of training and practice to paddle well even more to paddle well together.
Thanks to the Novice Men who manned the food sales as well as Kwai and Corrina who made it all possible. Thanks to coaches who always tried to keep the wheels turning smoothly in their many hours of working and planning. Thanks to everyone who donated items, time and money. Thanks to all the volunteers to setup, tear down, clean up, held boats and cheered everyone on.
With World Sprints coming to Hilo next year, 2024 is going to be an amazing time to be a paddler. We’ll see some of the best in the world battle it out in our bay. Keep training and let’s show them what can do.
2024 Team Jersey
The men’s 40 crew were happy to give the paddling community a sneak peak at our 2024 jersey. They definitely caught the crowds attention.
2024 Jersey – Choice of Red or Blue – only available in button up with cut sleeves
Awesome job by everyone! Crews and coaches all put together their best efforts to gather points throughout the day. The kids and Novice crews had a great race day leaving the club up by 16 points.
The other clubs had a slightly stronger adult crews combined with a couple DQ’s on our side gave them a gap that was too hard to close (see the blue (us) vs. green (them)) lines on the point accumulations throughout the day.
Great racing and team work for all the crews, family and friends who paddled and/or cheered! La’a also did a live stream for the race and for those not able to make it, they were excited to watch from home from the new Moku page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094238237719
Special congratulations to the Men’s 70 who finally got to race in their own division (instead of filling the Men’s 55). Not only did they wait patiently for a shot at their event, they took 1st: Chucky Aki, Jeff Harman, Greg Kane, James McKeague, George Thomas, Lloyd Van De Car
Also Kawiki did a great video and with many of our races in Lane 1, we were featured often: https://youtu.be/fFFhlq-hom8
Full 2023 Season Recap
You can find our club’s results throughout the year sorted by Event on the webpage linked below. Remember that each regatta has it’s own weather and ocean conditions which can effect overall times from race to race as well.
2023-08-26 Great Waikoloa Race at Anaeho’omalu Bay
Queen Lillu’okalani Race (massive OC6 race in Kona) Thursday, August 31, 2023 through Monday, September 4, 2023 — primary race day is Saturday Sept. 2nd. https://www.qlcanoerace.com/index.asp
Channel Races in Hawai’i
Pailolo Challenge (race from Maui to Molokai) September 16. https://pailolo.com/
States in Hilo will be in 2 weeks, Aug. 5th. Come down and support the club and teams that qualified to compete. There’s always some amazing racing to watch.
We have 2 crews and 1 V1 paddler going to Samoa for the World Distance event in August. Keep your eyes peeled for their training and racing. Follow on IG: https://www.instagram.com/koyd.hi/
2024 World Sprints is coming to Hilo. Time to start training. Time trials will be in February and the competition will be in August in Hilo. Top paddlers from all over the world will come to test themselves in our little bay. Let’s bring the fire Keaukaha! Two years ago KOYD kids went to London to race with some of the top teams and V1 paddlers in the world. We have a long summary and videos you can learn about the event and see the action: https://keaukahacanoeclub.com/2022-ivf-world-sprints/
Since World Sprints is in Hilo, we should train and field 6 man teams and V1 paddlers for the time trials in February. It’s going to be a HUGE event right in our backyard. Let’s go!
