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
We had a good turn out for this opening race, the first in the points series this season. And being the first race, they went easy on the paddlers by giving them a 3 mile short course and a 5 mile long course.
The challenge in this race wasn’t so much the typical flat hot weather with adverse current, but figuring out where your turning point was going. With both courses starting at the same time, they tried to group the starting line between short and long course sides. The short course turn was a double hull canoe being pushed around by the current and drunkenly picking headings. To make things worse the long course motor boat kept crossing behind the double hull out in the distance.
This dance of turning points made for a lot of paddlers cutting back and forth across each others paths. Well, it was a bit fun to watch if you weren’t in the front pack.
Long Course Results
The upside is the amount of gold hording in Keaukaha went up significantly. Check out all the gold:
Nik and Whitney – Mix OC2
Grant – OC1 M50s
Kawai – OC1 W40s
Brandi – OC1 Wopen
Lexi – OC1 WNovice
Congratulations to all the paddlers who raced: Nik & Whitney, Grant, Eric, Jeff, Gary, Brandi, Lexiand Crystal!
Since none of our KCC paddlers did the short course, you can read about their times in the results.
Don’t feel like you can’t jump into some of the races, that was just the very first one with MANY more coming this season in January. Next weekend we have the Beanie Memorial and we’ve updated the calendar of events for this season’s races which you can sync up with your personal calendar.
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/
Even though there were no channel races this year the paddling community came out in force for the Big Island event of the year. And it’s not quite over. As I write this the 40 mix is getting ready to charge the double hull sprints on the second to the last day of racing. It’s an insane race. Imagine Mad Max meets Waterworld.
Keaukaha paddlers were spread wide through out all the levels of competition in this event. We had top paddlers hammering in the unlimiteds all the way down to the kids doing a holoholo unofficial 12 man race both directions, and everything in between from open to 60+.
The sight of all those canoes back on the ocean together was cathartic for all of us yearning for the pre-covid days. We definitely missed the large international contingent that this race normally draws but it was a glorious sunrise Saturday morning that revealed a stunning array of na wa’a.
2022 Lili’u Canoes ready for the ocean
Recording of the live video from the Men’s race back to Kona. Keep your eye on Team Oceania with some of our paddlers on board:
Results
Here’s the full results for those who haven’t seen them yet, or sat through the 15 hour long award ceremony.
Men’s 60’s: #576 ‐ Keaukaha CC Nine 60+ 2:34:23 (Division 5th)
Congratulations to all Novice B Paddlers
Our newest ohana members really helped a lot of our crews out. Not only did they have a full 9 woman crew, they also helped fill seats in M60 and W40.
We also had multiple Novice A in M50.
Great job to all of you especially the brave crew who charged hard in their first major distance race. There’s a reason there’s only 1 canoe in their division and that’s because this is a tough race especially for new paddlers.
Novice B Hammahs looking ready to race again after a solid finish!
Mix Plate Champs
Sometimes opportunities open up for paddlers to hui up with other teams and they deserve recognition too. Apologies in advance if I screw this up as my mental notes of who was doing what is not very good.
Open Men from Keaukaha filled in 2 crews with Team Oceania and a 3rd club (didn’t get their name). They were key members that led to podium finishes.
Also Keahi led a group of 12 keiki on an unofficial round trip run all the way down to Hōnaunau and back. Unfortunately there were some age cut-offs that kept them from competing in an official capacity, but that didn’t stop them from completing the full run both directions!
Now What? Don’t couch potato it.
There’s the Catalina race in California next week. The Henry race on Oahu after that. But if you’re not flying and charging those races? Start your OC1 paddling.
Over 50 crews raced on Saturday at Waikoloa’s six man race located in Anaeho’omalu Bay on a windy morning. Our only official canoe was a 40’s mix who took first in their division with the last minute addition of a 60+ novice paddler. We also had a scattering of paddlers that helped fill in other canoes and included Tyron, Grant, Paco who also did well.
The race results are a bit error prone and they didn’t include times. You can read them here and perhaps they will update and fix some of the places.
The big race on Saturday will have full coverage for those of you at home. In addition you can also use the live tracker to track your favorite team. There will be multiple teams in Jrs., women, mix and men races from our club and a few combo crews too and special good luck to our Novice B crew too!
Sunday’s Double Hull Race – Don’t get smashed!
LIVE FEED – Saturday Races
Races will be live on Facebook during Saturday races!
Our Live Feed team will begin streaming approximately 7:20 am, covering the start of the Wahine, and Mix 40+ and Mix 50+ divisions. The team will follow the south bound race and be at the finish line at Honaunau.
There will be a break in the feed, approximately 30 minutes, and then back online just prior to the start of the Kane and Mix Open division start. Coverage of the north bound race live streams all the way back to Kailua Bay for the finish.
This Saturday on the 20th we had 5 crews ready to compete out on the water at Hōnaunau for Keoua Canoe Club’s race. The kids, mixes and women teams went first with a five minute staggered start between the unlimiteds, open/mix and the keiki. The short course was 8 miles and the keiki did a 3 mile race.
Huki!
The morning weather was hot and muggy with a still ocean. The short course ran north from Hōnaunau to Kealakekua Bay and back.
Short Course
Congrats to all our mixed crews, even if some had to play bumper boats to clear the start line. Great job to the 2 Novice crews that turned up in Koholo and Lono to paddle! Keep it up!
The rough overall placings for 31 Koa/Fiberglass canoes follow (ignoring the unlimited canoes):
1st Overall: 1st Pae’a – Open Mix 1:05.50
2nd Overall: 2nd Kepuku – Open Mix 1:09.32
5th Overall: 3rd Kuhaimoana – Open Mix 1:11.05
9th Overall: 4th Auku’u – Open Mix 1:13.44
16th Overall: 11th Kaholo – Open Mix 1:26.27
18th Overall: 3rd Lono – Novice Women 1:27.23
Women and Mixed Short Course
Long Course
Following the first race, the men started at about 11:00 am as the breeze was starting to fill in and the ocean developed some texture. On their 11 mile course from Hōnaunau – Kealakekua Bay – Keawekāheka Point – Hōnaunau, there were bumps to find on the run back down from Keawekāheka Point and all the crews were looking for course advantages. A Puna unlimited flew too close to the sun trying to surf next to the reef entering Kealakekua Bay and met with an abrupt huli with paddlers scattered in the waves. This ended their chances of placing.
For Keaukaha though a big congrats 50s! Out of 17 koa/fiberglass canoes:
8th Overall: 50’s Men (1st in the 50’s).
2022 Men’s results
Next Race 27th
Don’t forget to consider next Saturday’s race: Great Waikola
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 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.
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!
