One of our junior paddlers, Nahi, is headed to the Big Apple for higher education. Nahiena Kekuawela who has been paddling with the KOYD/RISE program received both an athletic (rowing) scholarship and an academic scholarship to Long Island University for the Sharks.
LIU is only about 25 miles outside of NYC which will be an amazing adventure.
PARTY IS: Wednesday 3/29 at 5pm at the Bayfront Halau.
Both of Nahi’s parents, Tiffany and Kawika, paddle with Keaukaha so let’s come down and show support. Nahi graduates this year from Waiakea HS with a 3.8 gpa. And she follows her older brother, Kailikea who played football for Southern Oregon and older sister Maluhia who went to Fresno Pacific University for soccer.
Good luck Nahi!
If you’re interested to learn something about paddling/rowing scholarship opportunities for your kids, talk with Tiffany about ideas and strategy. And if you’d like to enroll your kids in the KOYD/RISE program for amazing experiences contact Keahi.
The signup for keiki is ready. Please let parents know. There’s a new on-line process which should hopefully be easier than all the papers. If you have any problems just contact us through the website.
This year State Championships is coming to Hilo! The competition will be tough and the pressure high. Keaukaha will be ready. We revamped our jersey’s to reflect our ties to decades of paddlers before us as we break ground with new achievements.
When our club was originally founded a hala tree was planted near our Hālau. It was our original insignia and inspired our original yellow and brown colors. It’s roots has remained strong over the years and it’s grown tall.
Pandanus tectorius
The Hala is an excellent survivor in a marine environment like our paddlers. The tree thrives in poor, salty or sandy soils in hot and windy areas.
Hala leaves (lau hala) are exceptional for weaving mats, hats, roof thatching, canoe sails, baskets, sandals (kāma‘a), fans and much more. The fruit of the female hala tree can be made into striking yellow to deep-orange lei. Traditionally these lei are given in times when a person advances from one significant level of life to the next; including graduations, weddings and funerals.
Sizes
Each product has a size chart. Make sure you double check it and the product description as some sizes run a little smaller. Refunds are only available for defects or damaged goods.
Jerseys
This year they will be made to order. So if you want to save on shipping, hui up with your buddies and order together.
OC1 Stall holders need to pay their club dues and stall dues before February 1 to keep your stall. Keys change February 1.
Membership fees are also due for all six man paddlers. OC6 paddlers must pay before jumping in a canoe.
Large expenses this year include main hālau re-construction and OC6 repairs. Continued expenses include ground maintenance, equipment repairs, hālau repairs, HCRA and race related fees.
$100 for Membership
$120 per stall
$50 refundable deposit per hālau key (if you need a replacement key or new key)
How to Pay
All payments are done online because we also need all your paperwork too.
Follow the steps outlined. Please make sure your personal information is correct, especially your contact info and birth date. Even if everything is correct, you’ll need to save the forms to verify you’ve reviewed them.
The last step is the payment via paypal, venmo (if installed on your device), credit or debit card. You can’t pay until all the required paperwork steps have been completed.
People new to the club are required to contact us on the contact page and we’ll create an account for you to setup your information, sign paperwork and pay dues.
Please don’t ask individual members about trying to make exceptions.
Kwai-Chang is hosting a raffle to benefit Noah Pila with the winner taking home some nice prices on Christmas Eve.
Text Kwai-Chang to get your tickets to support Noah and maybe ring in the new year with some new gear which includes a custom length paddle, Yeti Cooler and a big pack of Beyond Juice.
Please help spread the word!
Hilo Race Dec. 17 for Noah
This upcoming weekend on Dec 17th there is special race being put on “Head Strong” to help a young Hilo Big Island paddler who has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his head. His name is Noah Pila. His parents Grant and Anna Kaʻauʻa have raced in HIPA races, MOKU paddlers and coaches at Keaukaha Canoe Club as well as high school paddling coaches at Keaʻau high school.
Anna is currently with Noah at Queenʻs on Oʻahu by his bed side while Grant is in Hilo caring for their daughters Kaili, Pakela and Ahonui. Itʻs never easy for family when unexpected situations happen such as this. Noah will be going through a medical procedure to remove the tumor. Some risks included temporary or long term weakness, speech issues and future cancer treatments and procedures.
Therefore, this special race taking place at BayFront is to provide support the Kaʻauʻa ʻohana. Your registration fees will go directly to help the ʻohana for all and any medical and other needs at this time.
The race course will be one course. No long or short. Just one course, but with divisions. Course will be decided upon on race day.
Register on-line at the HIPA website under upcoming races. Check-in begins at 7:30. Race meeting will be at 8:15am down by Official Stand and race start shortly right after (5-10 minutes right after) with a beach start.
*** There is a high school regatta race at Bay Front happening same day at 9am so each paddler is encouraged to have your canoe with you near race meeting, at official stand, so there is no delay, collision, confusion or left behind when race starts :-). BEST to have your vehicle near the official stand grass area to off load and reload your ocean craft.
*** No awards or food will be available as we want to use this time to shower the ʻohana with our HIPA ALOHA.
*** For those who are unable to attend and would like to support the family, here is the GOFund me and VENMO links to donate to.
Noah Pila one of our world sprint champs who just turned 18 was hospitalized December 3rd for what seemed to be a type of seizure or stroke. An MRI was done and to everyone’s surprise a brain tumor was discovered. The nature and treatment of the tumor still needs to be assessed and Noah is on his way to Oahu’s Queen’s Medical Center where there are specialists.
In the meantime, let’s hui up and provide him and his family support as they navigate through these rough dark waters.
How to Help
A gofundme has been created to help them deal with the costs so they have one less problem to worry about. Please give what support you can.
Noah is always quick with a smile and a caring heart
Did anyone find 2 Makana Ali’i paddles with Fearless Hawaiian stickers around Oct. 10th? If so contact Kwai-Chang or use the website contact form to let someone know.
Halloween OC Race
Lots of great costumes this year at the Halloween Fun race. Photos from Michael Carlon.
The Keepers of Rules and TimePeter and Tinker racing for goldTaco TerrifyingJust let the shark pass
The points races will be starting soon for OC1/OC2 races. The first race was moved to Nov. 19, followed by Nov. 26. HIPA hasn’t published the 2023 schedule yet, but we will update our Events page with the races and you can synchronize them with your phone calendar too.
What a better way to start of the season with a fun race dressed as someone or something else? In the past there’s been great costumes like hammers and motors. Just don’t leave the course littered with your costume. More details to be shared soon at https://www.instagram.com/sojuicyhawaii
Word is it’s a free race and will probably have check-in around 8am. But verify @sojuicyhawaii as the date approaches.
Paddle the Pacific Solo?
Think your workouts are long? There’s recently been 2 individuals paddling from California to Hawai’i about 2400 miles.
Carlo Facchino arrived Thursday at Wailoa boat harbor in Hilo after a nearly 2,400-mile solo row across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to the Big Island.
And this week around day 93 Cyril Derreumaux is completing his second attempt to paddle to Hawai’i. There is a paddle out organizing to greet him on his expected arrival around the 21st. Watch his site and live position reports for details. https://solokayaktohawaii.com/
About the time this gets published 12 very worn out paddlers and several exhausted adults are on their way back to Hawai’i from London, and they represented us like champs!
Keaukaha rolled up in force at the custom 2012 Olympic rowing venue in Windsor, England for the International Va’a Federation World Sprints 2022.
We had 5 paddlers qualify for individual V1 races: ‘Ehā, Cother, Ali’i, Tanoa, and Noah. And 6 Jr. men and 6 Jr. women in the V6 1000m and 500m events. The competition was Intense with a capital I.
Heats
The World Sprints race progression is an elimination type of event rather than a single winner takes all. The progression of who advances depends on the number of heats for that category. All of the events for the kids were either 2 or 3 heats and this chart shows how paddlers can advance to the finals. It’s important to understand this flow as they were in many races.
Race Progressions Based on the Number of Heats for an Event
Start Sequence
For the World Sprints there are 2 start lines: a pre-start line with white buoys, and a real start line with colored lane flags.
Once the white flag goes up, crews can move up to the pre-start line. And then when the red flag is raised, crews can approach the start line. If someone is over a black flag is raised. There is no individual warning, crews have to figure it out and back up. As crews settle, a green flag is raised starting the race. If the black flag is still up when the green flag is raised those crews across the line are disqualified.
V1 500 meters
‘Ehā competed in Race 060 Jr. 16 Men. Heat 1 of 2, he paddled into a 4th place, qualifying him for finals. In the Race Jr. 16 finals he put up an amazing fight nearly even with the top paddlers until about midway when the others managed to pull ahead. ‘Ehā finished the final in an impressive 7th on Day 4 Race 147.
Race 147: A few races were archived individually. ‘Ehā’s V1 Final (starts 1:30).
Tanoa in heat two Race 061 Jr. 16 had a blazing start and paddled fiercely down the course. His fellow paddlers pulled slowly out ahead of him towards the mid-field of the course and at the final line placed in 7th and unfortunately not advancing to the finals.
Cother raced in Race 64 Jr. 19 Women, Heat 2 of 3 and padded into a strong 4th place, qualifying her to compete in the next round Race 125 Repechage where 3rds, 4ths and 2 fastest times compete again for the finals. Cother improved to a 3rd place position but with 3 heats, unfortunately only 1st and 2nd in the Repechage advance to the finals.
Noah and Ali’i raced in Race 69 Jr. 19 Men Day 3 heat 3 of 3. The Jr. 19 men moved fast through the water but Ali’i and Noah were a show of force pulling off a 3rd (Ali’i) and 4th (Noah). This qualified them for the Race 144 Repechage round on Day 4 where Ali’i placed 1st to advance to the finals and Noah placed 7th and with 3 heats you have to be 1st and 2nd to move on to the finals. In the Race 154 Jr. 19 Men finals, Ali’i pushed hard and pulled off 7th at the worlds finals!
Race 154 Jr. 19 Men Finals with Ali’i (starts at 1:30)
V6 1000 meters (1 turn)
The Junior 19 Women were the first of our team to do the 6 man race. The 1000 meters requires 1 turn and in these narrow unlimited the turns are very hard. It’s not something they get to practice often but they did well.
Jr. 19 Women
Race 180 Jr. 19 Women in their first race Heat 1 of 3 pulled off a blazing 1st place moving them into the semifinals where they battled it out in Race 202 and got 4th just shy of continuing to the finals.
Race 202 Jr. Women semi-finals (Starts at 1:30)
Race 193 Junior 19 Men raced the 1000m in heat 3 of 3 and the competition was fierce. It was a tight race and tough, they managed a 3rd place moving them into the semifinals.
Jr. 19 Men
Day 5 the Race 234 Jr. 19 men semi-finals was a tough heat with some fast crews. They paddled their way to a 3rd place which was just shy of qualifying for the finals by only 2 seconds.
Race 234 Semi Finals for Junior 19 Men (Race Starts 4:00)
Considering both these crews have never paddled at this level on the world stage, in these canoes and most are nowhere near the 19 year old age limit of some of their competitors, it’s amazing to see such a high level of competitive performance from them. Great racing!
Lanikai was short one paddler for their V6 entry so ‘Ehā jumped in and hammered with them. Race 223 Jr. 16 Men 1000m saw Lanikai accelerate into 3rd place propelling them to the semi-finals. Race 344 Final 1000m and Lanikai (powered also by ‘Ehā) brought the silver home!
Race 344: Jr. 16 Final with ‘Ehā in with Lanikai Canoe Club from Oahu
V6 500 meters
This event is going to be a little more competitive for our crews because of the lack of a turn which they did not have the advantage of being able to practice in an ARE “Matahina” style canoe that’s very hard to turn.
Race 335 Junior 19 women heat 1 of 2 started off fast with some fast paddling all the way down the course. The team battled hard and found themselves just shy of the semi-finals in 5th place.
Race 332 Junior 19 men Heat 2/2 saw Keaukaha paddle to a 4th place finish moving them into the finals. Race 372 Junior 19 Men finals was a fast race. #53 didn’t disappoint as they blazed down the course to a 5th place in the final race a mere 2.73 seconds behind the podium in 3rd. Great job to all of them!
Once again Lanikai needed some help and ‘Ehā stepped up to the plate to help their Junior V6 team again.
Race 372 Jr. 19 Men finals
Race 380 Junior 16 men with ‘Ehā in the va’a with Lanikai found them paddling like pros dueling it out for a shot at first place against New Zealand. These kids were moving out there on the water and almost caught New Zealand taking 2nd making this ‘Eha and Lanikai’s second silver at Worlds.
Race 380: Junior 16 Men V6 500m with ‘Ehā and Lanikai
Live Stream Archive and Results
If you want to watch more of the action as there are almost 400 races, you can find the daily video archives here:
Saturday was a day for racing on Big Island. Hilo hosted the popular Da Hui OC1/2/6/Keiki/SupSquatch race with 2 courses. And Miloli’i hosted a OC6 long distance race on the Kona side.
Da Hui Long Course Results
With calm waters and light variable winds, this race was a push for everyone.
For OC1’s Tyler, Kama and Moku all finished inside a second of each other, with Tyler taking home a new paddle as 1st place prize. Congrats to all 3 of them. That’s some intense racing! Good job Tyler, Kama, Kawena, Brandi!
Da Hui 8/13/2022 long course results
Da Hui Short Course Results
The short course had almost twice as many entries and some Keaukaha hammers. Awesome paddling to Grant, TR, Loren, and Clem!
This race is known as good heat training for the Queen Liliuokalani race and it didn’t disappoint. Our 40’s mix crew hammered it out in the current and hot weather on Saturday.
40’s Mix churning and burning the course – They can also testify to the new iPhone’s water resistance. For that story, ask them, haha.
Good job 40’s crew as the 5th place mix and 7th overall!
