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!
Another epic fun regatta! There’s so many moving parts to hosting 1,256 paddlers and their friends and family. It’s no small feat. From getting permits to vending to fund raising all the way to paddling and setting up the course, there’s a job for everyone.
It’s amazing how well we all pull together but that is the basic nature of paddling.
The points was a close repeat from the last regatta with Puna in first and us in second with a 54 point gap. Some points were lost to DQ’s which is always tough on crews. But that’s a fixable problem and we should be able to iron out those issues by Moku and States.
Hardware
We had a lot of podium finishes with 8 gold, 7 silver and 7 bronze, that’s about 1/2 of our crews. A quick shout out to the 8 crews the managed to light their lanes on fire.
Women Freshmen (Kawena Brooks, Anna Kaaua, Cherie Kauahi, Kawai Kauahi, Kanoe Lee Loy, Brandi Rapozo)
Men 65 (Jeff Clemenson, Warren Dela Cruz, Greg Kane, Mike Shintaku, Ben Smith, Egan Tasaki)
Men 50 (Eric Baicy, Keone Chin, Grant Kauahi, Nathan Osorio, Romo Romo, Moku Young)
We also had several crews post impressively fast times, even if they didn’t quite squeeze out the other crews. Both the Men 40’s (3rd) and Men Juniors (2nd) posted the fastest 1/2 mile and 1 mile times for our club Saturday but the competition was fierce. Men’s 40 had the 3rd fastest 1/2 mile of the day and Men Juniors had the 2nd fastest mile.
Novices continue to improve their times and are doing well with Women Novice A on the podium and several other crews close to the top spots.
La’a live streamed our regatta and the results were very professional. Some of the coverage can be replayed on his facebook page. He used 2 camera angles and showed on-line results in real time. Check it out. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087853629116
Our first 2023 Hilo regatta was a great success with most crews improving their standings. 20 crews made it to the podium with the keiki coming on strong off the line with 10 crews in the top 3.
Combining the keiki and Novice A and B paddlers we were leading the regatta points going into the 1 mile events.
Good job to the Novice A/B/Mix crews. WNB with 3rd, XNB 10th (sorry about the poor holding job, current on lanes 4 & 5 were strong), MNB (DQ along with 2 other DQ’s. It happens), WNA 2nd, MNA 8th.
Lots of tough races with our club getting 2nd overall and 9 Gold, 8 Silver and 3 Bronze. We did see a large gap between us and Puna who took home 20 golds but they did it using their barely legal grandfathered koa canoe, Kalapana….
Keaukaha Regatta & Medals
At our regatta on the 24th we will distribute previous medals and celebrate the season after racing is pau. So be prepared to stick around for some fun. More information about everyone’s kuleana will be coming from coaches and members as we move through this week.
For food there will be food trucks and pop-up vendors that Kwai-Chang is organizing along with So Juicy also supplying food and juices.
KOYD will be selling cold pupus as part of their fundraiser to get the 13 kids to Samoa for the IVF World Distance race.
Keaukaha will also be selling drinks to help raise funds for the halau rebuild and canoe repairs.
Te Aito – Congrats Ali’i
The famous Tahiti rudderless race (V1) took place on June 11th. Our very own Ali’i Youderian (Puakea Team Rider), who also qualified for the individual event at World Distance with KOYD, made an impressive appearance by finishing this extremely competitive race in 11th for his division. Just for comparison he was a mere 5 minutes behind 1st place (Keoni Sulpice) who is already a professional paddler for Shell Va’a.
Last years IVF World Sprints in London was a huge success and an amazing experience for our paddlers. This year we’re looking to get 13 kids to World Distance hosted in Samoa.
We had 2 teams qualify for World Distance this year. OC6 Girls 16 and Boys 16 and Ali’i Youderian (individual V1). KOYD is starting their fundraiser to help get these teams to Somoa to compete. Having individual or corporate sponsors would be fantastic. Here’s how:
Aloha ʻOe,
We are Keaukaha One Youth Development a Hawaiian non‐profit organization, a dedicated canoe/paddling collective from Hilo, Hawaiʻi and would like to humbly ask you and your company to consider becoming a sponsoring partner on our way to the prestigious IVF outrigger canoe world distance championship this August in Apia, Samoa:
Our story: From the small town of Hilo, Hawaiʻi, a group of thirteen (13) athletes with heart, dedication, and willpower surprised everyone in the paddling world and qualified for the “Olympics” of outrigger canoe paddling. Cherishing and perpetuating the values instilled in us through our heritage of paddling and navigating, this path has brought us to this once in a lifetime opportunity that is now before us.
Our goal: As a youth development program that began from humble beginnings, stemming from a proud but not necessarily affluent community, we want to represent Hawaiʻi on the biggest stage. Our will to succeed did not come overnight but our success did. We believed deeply in the possibilities yet were surprised by qualifying after our initial partaking. This is part of the reason why we could not create long‐term plans for our budget but pretty much need to raise the necessary funds within weeks, not months…
Our promise: We do not take our kuleana (responsibility & privilege) lightly. We know that every dollar chipped in for our cause could have been spent in so many ways…that is why we would like to remind you why your decision in sponsoring our goal is a pono (correct & rightful) thing to do: * Become part of an incredible story, which is a one‐of‐a‐kind opportunity for your company’s social media exposure. * Become a member of our crew that travels across the world to represent Hawaiʻi and showcase the true values and spirit of aloha and sportsmanship. * Become a true cultural ambassador to Hawaiʻi on a globally covered/visible event. * Become a prime vessel to reach your target audience and clientele. * Show the world, your audience, that you are serious about corporate & social responsibility, live your actions and support ambitious athletes. * As pioneers and believers there is no end to possibilities, only beginnings.
To become a Sponsor or Donate: All donations are tax‐deductible and can be accepted via check to Keaukaha One Youth Development at the address above, or visit our GoFundMe page available online at:
https://gofund.me/71d2ee2a
For all other inquiries or possibilities on how we can represent your brand, sponsorship, business, or organization, please feel free to reach out to us.
ʻAʻohe mea ke alu like mai kākou (there is nothing we cannot accomplish together),
