This time parking was a lot more manageable if you got space in the dirt lot. Beware though they seem intent on closing parking at 5pm next time so have an escape plan.
Our Moku O Keawe regattas have started earlier than others and during graduation so these early Kona regattas usually leave us a bit short handed and we had to scratch 11 events which made it tough to make points in our division. This upcoming weekend also coincides with Kamehameha graduation so we’ll be short handed again. If you can paddle come down and stick around. On the plus side we had ZERO DQ’s and ZERO fines which is always a bonus. And the Women 70’s had to fight that flag pretty hard to keep from getting DQ’d.
Mahalo nui to all who could make it and were around to hold boats and cheer the crews on. It was a good shake down regatta to reset and focus on the hard work ahead. We didn’t get the wa’a back on the trailer until around 6pm so it was a long one.
Big thanks to the Kiyunas who arrived the day before and carved out a place for us among the shrinking pier space. Without them we would have had a hard time organizing together as a club.
We hope to have Waimฤpuna back in top condition again without the drag of the uncured epoxy coat. We removed the epoxy coat and tested the wood for percentage water intrusion and didn’t see any problems. Clear coat will be applied this week and we should be ready for action.
Regattas at the Kailua-Kona Pier are back for 2026. They have built a large system underwater to anchor the marks after a lot of expense and permitting. Check our Event Calendar for all the upcoming paddling events.
70’s/65’s go first at 8am and Novices are also in the morning. Please come down and cheer your teammates and all our keiki.
Lots of extra lanes in case lane 1 gets too rough.
Parking
Honda is letting us use their dirt parking lot and in return paddlers are asked to bring canned food items to contribute to the Food Bank — Non-Perishable Items Only. The entrance is roughly here on this link below but it’s not clear where they will setup:
This parking is for paddlers ONLY. You might be asked your two digit club id #. So if you don’t know what that is, ask someone.
Setup
The pier seems to be getting smaller and smaller. We’re going to have to fight for space again if you want to setup down there. There’s still no tents allowed on the shore and paddlers are supposed to stay in the yellow areas on the map, somehow. You’ll see our normal spot has been removed from the usable area.
Want to Race?
Time is almost up for you to get your e-waiver signed and you should have had all your paperwork and dues completed long before now. You can log into your account here and see your status. Look for all YES โ under Approved to Race:
Contact us if you have a problem with your status.
As we wrap up the event, weโd love to hear about your experience. Please take a moment to complete the attached survey and share any feedbackโpositive or constructiveโso we can continue improving the run for you and future participants. You can see the full race with finish times here too.
We are going to slowly get everyone on the water a little earlier this year.
ALL PADDLERS STARTING 2/23
Please help spread the word! New paddlers contact us to get started.
WOMEN AND MEN TO 65 STARTING 2/23
All divisions from Novice to 65 will start with Keahi coaching Women and Kama coaching the men. Early season practices only two times a week Monday and Wednesday 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Feb. 23rd.
KEIKI PADDERS START 2/23 – Signup Now
Kids program is open now for sign ups. Like last year there’s no specials this season so youth paddlers under 9 may need approval to participate. Please help spread the word.
Keahi will be coaching the youth program from 3:30 pm to 5pm on Monday and Wednesday. Parents – make sure to fill out the application for your paddlers!
OPENING PARTY 3/13
Friday March 13th potluck for ALL friends, family and paddlers at the Halau starting around 5pm. Come by and say EH!
They will be donating to our club to help with this activity and those funds will go towards canoe repairs and possible canoe purchases.
We will be giving them an introduction to the culture, history and technique of paddling Hawaiian canoes followed by some time in a double or triple hull and OC1/V1/OC2. See the signup sheet for details.
Our big fundraising effort will be with our fun run scheduled for SundayApril 26th. We will be running the whole show this year so we’ll need volunteers for course setup, booths, awards, lots of things to do. Let your runner friends know it’s coming back and we’ll be using the beautiful Scenic Route again! Use our Calendar of Events to sync to your Google Calendar.
Save the date!
WA’A
This year we hope to expand our canoes to accommodate more paddlers. If you know of any newer style six-man canoes for sale, please let us know. Location is not a deal breaker, so keep your eyes and ears open for possibilities. Mahalo!
Keeping Up with Keaukaha
We have a great interactive Calendar of Events where you can click on events, get more info and save them to your calendar. The 2026 MOH (LD and Regatta schedule has been added). Bookmark it!
We also now have an old-school bulletin board in the Hฤlau for members to use. Announcements, photos, canoes for sale…you know what to do.
We have a few critical meetings coming up for those who want to be involved in official race duties. We need that representation! Saturday, April 4, 2025 – Location not determined, but all coaches and anyone volunteering to officiate must attend.
You can find this and much much more on the Calendar of Events, including the canoe weigh-in day and opening season party.
Our States crew scrapped for every point in Maui and we tied in our division for First Place. HCRA had their big annual meeting and they presented us with our trophy as they did not expect our two-way tie for first with Kilohana Hoe and had to make a new one for us.
Mahalo nui loa to everyone who supported those 6 crews who managed top seeding in the states. It takes a strong unified community to put together such a powerful showing at States from our kids to the Kupuna racers.
1ST PLACE TROPHY
States for 2026 will be back in O’ahu which is more accessible and has a more level race course and should allow us to compete with many more crews in a bigger division. Stay hungry!
Get a Wa’a
With one-man season gearing up and High School regattas starting soon, it’s time to think about getting serious. Both Jose and Keahi have some great equipment for sale, so check them out and contact us if you need to get a hold of them.
Ares $3,000 (Jose)SOLD 1/22/2026
Drako $4,000 (Jose)
V1’s of various types (Keahi)
DRACODRACO
And for those of you ready to lose the “training wheels” talk to Keahi about picking up a V1.
HCRA Changes
HCRA is trying to modernize some. They have updated their website and are going to implement electronic waivers statewide. We don’t know how this is all supposed to quite work yet but we’ll all figure it out together.
Club Updates
We are trying to put together a comprehensive 2026 schedule from major international paddling events to our club activities so we can all prepare together better.
In that spirit, there is now a bulletin board in the back area of the Hฤlau to help us communicate activities with each other – old school style. Feel free to post items of club interest – photos, activities, etc.
Don’t forget OC1 stall rentals roll over in February and renewals will open in January after we understand what to do with the waiver situation.
Some things to look forward to include hosting both a regatta AND a long distance race. We are still working on the details but it would be a club first. Also we will likely be hosting one or two big fundraisers
This seasons goal is to raise funds for wa’a repairs and if we do well enough, get a few new wa’a as well. Right now we are pretty broke after the Hฤlau rebuild but we’re coming back strong for 2026.
As usual we can always benefit from new paddlers, so encourage family and friends to come join us on the water this season. Just have them go to our contact page in Feb/March and we’ll help get them going.
After a long drought, we had our first womens crew paddle in the Na Wahine o Ke Kai 2025 in many years. It was a combined effort with help from Kai ‘Opua who had already made some arraignments but most of their paddlers dropped out, so our women teamed up with them and got 4th in their division and 42 overall. Amazing work in some lively conditions.
Here’s their GPS replay in 200x speed with our heros highlighted.
Under lighter wind conditions we saw 4 of our men’s crews battle it out following in the wake of the Nฤ Wฤhine. There was some intense competition from some of the best paddlers in the world with the top crew OPT breaking into the top 10 of fastest crossing times.
Men Open #87 in Micah Wai’oli – 6th Overall
Men Open #88 in Kuamo’okane – 17th Overall
Men 55+ #14 in Wailani – 62nd Overall (Division 2nd Place)
Men 40 #18 in Mio – 73rd Overall (Division 9th)
Here’s their GPS track with all 4 crews highlighted.
Mahalo nui to those who helped protect our canoes from a possible tsunami on Tuesday. Most of the world was spared from tidal waves from that huge release of energy in one of the biggest recorded earth quakes in history. It’s important to remember that material things are not as important as people, so don’t put yourself in harms way unnecessarily. And when it comes to tsunamis it’s best to ignore the skeptics and find higher ground for the duration. Fortunately we have the NOAA warning network with excellent analysis, sensors and simulations to provide accurate timely warnings. Check out the video re-creation based on live buoy data.
1st Place In State Division A
On Aug. 2, 6 crews with number 1 seeds went to Maui to compete at Hanaka’ล’ล Beach. There were on-shore breaking waves all day but most of the course was protected from the strong winds. However there was a strong rip tide running all through the course making for challenging steering especially for non-local crews.
There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that it takes the whole club pulling together to help propel these 6 crews to represent all of us at States. We fielded the M70, M65, W18, Mfr, Mjr and M55. It’s no easy feat to qualify for States and it’s not a cheap endeavor for crews or our club. All our crews trained hard and did a fantastic job at states in Division A.
We finished the regatta with 71 points, tying with a local club for first place. Full results here.
Launching through surf. We had some club members who didn’t compete to help us and Kawaihae Canoe Club who shared their trailer with us lent lots of helping hands too.
Congratulations to Zoe, one of our youth paddlers, who qualified for a $1,000 scholarship from HCRA based on an essay contest. Each year HCRA holds an essay contest for youth paddlers and the odds are good, so all you 18 and under paddlers submit one.
Dragon Boats in Hilo
Every 2 years Hilo hosts the Haarii Boat Festival and they need some steersmen to help out. They tend to provide some donations to clubs that help them. So if you’re interested, sign up and help them. There’s a practice day Aug. 15th and the race day is Aug. 16th. By all accounts from previous races volunteers have a great time an you typically only need to steer about 3 events.
Please contact Grant to assist: Grant T. Miyashiro Co-chair, 2025 Haarii Boat Festival ๐ง gtmiyashiro@gmail.com ๐ (914) 721-0393
The first round (ordered prior to 3/16/25) of jerseys are here. They will be distributed 4/23 at 4pm to 6:30 pm at the Hฤlau. Please come get your stuff!
We have a 2nd round of orders going if you missed it. Order now: https://keaukahacanoeclub.com/store
5K Fun Run
Big thanks to all our early-bird volunteers who showed up and made this event happen. It was our first time doing this and organizing a 5K run on the land, but everyone had fun. The start photo says it all. And yes, we have an IG account now @keaukahacc53
5K Fun Run Fundraiser
Next year we’ll start planning earlier and be better equipped now that we know more about running this event. Expect more fun and more run.
Hฤlau – Mahalo to All of You
I (Eric) was personally overwhelmed with the outpouring of gratitude and couldn’t speak at the blessing. So had I found my composure, this is what I would have said.
When people ask about our club, I tell them we are more like an ‘Ohana than anything else. We are de-centralized and a bit chaotic at times, but we do our best. We have a wide range of characters and we all try to come together on the land and in the water to make us all better as a team and individuals. You can train to become a super competitive paddle-warrior. You can come out just to enjoy the company, culture, and ocean. Or, like most of us, do both of those things. And like a family we strive to be accepting and do our best to be fair. With all those moving different parts, somehow things always seem to get done.
Much like the large lei we wove together from all variations of ti leaves, we try to find unity and purpose together from a variety of parts. We recognize none of us are perfect but perhaps we can all find ways to be better together.
“Be curious, not judgmental” encourages us to approach people, situations, and even ourselves with openness and inquiry instead of criticism and assumptions.
Being judgmental means jumping to conclusions, labeling others, or dismissing them without trying to understand their story.
Being curious means asking why, being willing to listen, learn, and understand before forming an opinion.
Keola and I were fortunate to have a lot of supporters and helpers. It’s almost impossible to thank everyone individually as literally 100’s helped out from donations to sweat and blood.
2025 is here! Before you can paddle, you must sign your paperwork and pay dues. Login and get it done. If you don’t have an account, go to the contact page and let us know you want to get started.
Keiki Schedule:
UPDATE May 13 – 9 year old and under is suspended.
Practice is splitting up by age groups for better individual focus. Hereโs the newย schedule.
Friday โ All ages 3:30 โ 5pm
M/W โ Ages 10 โ 14 3:30 โ 5pm
T/TH โ Ages 15 โ 18 3:30 โ 5pm
12 and Up: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 3:30pm to 5pm
11 and Under: Friday 3pm to 4pmUpdate 3/21: Suspended until further notice. 10 and up may attend Monday, Tues, Thursday practices.
Adult Schedules
Schedule last update: 3/18 – check back for changes
WAHINE
START MARCH 3 (except Novice 3/10)
Open/40’s/50’s/60’s – (Keahi) M/T/TH 4:45 pm to 6:15 pm
65’s/70+ – (Lloyd) 9 am Wednesday (subject to change)
Rules for paddles have been changed for our island only but are still under debate. Expect only wooden paddles to be accepted when racing Koa canoes in an HCRA event.
Mix 55 has been eliminated from States, however that race will still be run for our island.
Division 10-12 years old has been added along with moving 70’s race to the morning event.
Regatta starts will be similar to IVF Sprint rules of a pre-start line and a raised black flag if the crew is over the the line.
2025 Race Schedule
There are lots of long distance races this season.
Kids and Adults jerseys will be like last season. However to save on shipping we will make a bulk order – so all 2025 Jerseys will be PICKUP – NO SHIPPING. Your orders MUST BE PLACED BY MARCH 15.
The 2025 season for KOYD paddlers is now open for signup. March 1 is the official start date. Practices will run 3:30pm to 5pm with days split up depending on the turnout for divisions.
If you’re under 18, your parents need to fill out the forms for you.
