Kilohana shares the Aloha at the Queen Lili'uokalani Canoe Races 2011
As we all settle in to school, work, REALITY…on behalf of the 2011 Kona Krews we’d like to extend our appreciation to Kilohana for all of your support. Your encouragement on/off the water and participation at practices/races when we needed to fill crews all helped in us reaching our ultimate goal.
For many of us this trip was filled with “firsts.” First time to the Big Island. First time snorkeling/boogie boarding/paddle boarding. First time racing a race of this magnitude. First time having POG (passionfruit, orange, guava juice)! Our early arrivals flew in on Wednesday and set off for a Costco run to get up and started. By Thursday evening the remainder of the krews had arrived. Many visits to the race merchandise shop were made and among the crowds we spotted familiar faces from the NCOCA including Robyn Sasaki and Shaka Madali. Afterward we all settled down for a bbq at our home away from home, Komohana (http://www.komohana.com/index.htm). Friday morning we set out for a day of fun. We headed up to Hapuna Beach where Joe and his wife, Kim were staying. To simply say we enjoyed the beach & sun doesn’t even come close to the day we had. By mid-day a small group picked up John Lynham from the airport and we headed back to the King Kamehameha hotel to meet up with our Kamehameha Canoe Club contact Sherise. To our surprise we spotted the Miyake family: Elle, Dana, Keone and Bryan on the dock also rigging their canoes. A quick reunion and all hands were on and each krew set out to have a feel for Nahoa. Chi, Lisa and Cece stayed behind for the coaches meeting while the rest of the gang headed back to freshen up, start up the spaghetti dinner and get ready for the next day.
Saturday morning started without a hitch. All were up bright and early to see off the women’s krew at Kailua Bay. So much excitement for all of us. There were more canoes than we all could imagine and soon enough the race the race started. We couldn’t have had better conditions. We received some nice rollers and the weather was perfect. Lisa chose an outside line and for the majority of the race we were able to focus on our own paddling. Her constant encouragement certainly got us through! Though we could see them out of the corner of our eyes to the left and right, only until the last three or so miles did we really come in close contact with the bulk of the crews. As we arrived at Honaunau, we set our eyes on finding the men for the exchange. Our keiki enthusiastically jumped into the water and helped us with the canoe. Soon after our men headed to the canoe and off to their start line. We hung out at Honaunau for a little while to see the men’s start and to check out Pu’uhonua o Honaunau – Place of Refuge. As the women and keiki headed back up the coast we kept our eyes on the lookout for the men’s krew. The experience of their race can only be expressed by the men but meeting them at Kailua Bay for the finish, they were certainly all smiles!
One of our former keiki paddlers who now attends U of H at Hilo, Kayla Damaso along with her roommate joined us for a late lunch/early dinner. Time flew by extremely fast and soon it was close to 6:30 PM, the start of the Torch Parade! As we waited for our torches many asked the organizers what the significance of the parade is and to our surprise it was something along the lines of “because it’s cool and we can.” I’m certain there is a bigger explanation 
Kilohana must have been the only club outfitted with it’s club banner as we kept getting compliments saying it was such a great idea. Amazingly we ended up in the front of the parade right behind, Kai ‘Ehitu ‘Ohana Wa’a Kaukahi. Each club in mutual respect going back and forth with our club chants. Such a fantastic ending to our day.
Sunday morning the boys race started at 7:30AM. From what we were told this year was the largest participation for the keiki race. One can only hope and imagine with the constant perpetuation of the sport to keiki paddlers, this portion of the race will continue to grow. Though we’re not 100% certain what happened, our boys got caught in a bit of a tangle at the beginning of the race. There was some talk that maybe it was confusion over the “fins” that were surfacing nearby. No worries parents, it was friendly fins accompanied by many spins above the water. Just a pod of nai’a. The boys ended up recovering from the incident quickly and had a really strong finish.
After breakfast and a few races in between, the adults along with Miki, headed out for the mixed double hull race. Again, this year saw the largest number of entries for ALL three of double hull races. There was somewhere around 35 canoes entered in our group alone! They really had us packed and as a krew we decided to wait at the start to avoid any collisions. We had seen the starts of both the men and women’s races and it certainly was chaotic. It was probably one of the best decision we had made. Having paddled around prior to the start, we were all really excited for the race as our timing looked spot on. Due to a few things, we spent start to finish BAILING!!! The greatest thing of it all was we continued throughout the entire race in amazing humor. This was certainly a race that none of us will ever forget!
For one of our paddlers, Miki Dela Cruz, this was his “Aloha” race with Kilohana. Miki will soon be moving abroad to continue his studies in the Philippines. We all wish you much success and know that the Ohana will always welcome you with open arms. The Kona Krews are certainly more than happy we were able to spend time and create these memories alongside you.
A huge showing of appreciation must be shown to the following (if I’ve missed anyone my apologies beforehand):
To Al Furumoto for securing Nahoa (the canoe which all 3 krews would safely & swiftly pass their finish lines) long before many of us even had plane tickets! And to he and Tony for their generous donation on behalf of the krews.
To Sandra Lawrence for taking the lead on outfitting the krews.
To Tamara Saguindel for her generous donation to the keiki boys krew.
To Kamehameha Canoe Club Hilo for loaning us Nahoa and their extended aloha.
To Kai ‘Opua for hosting such a memorable race. Their tireless work shows in the continued success of this race. We also thank them for loaning us canoes for the double hull race.
To Emily Madriaga and Kim Kopf for being the best cabana crew we could ever ask for!
To the Coaches, BOD and Ohana for continually standing by us.
And of course to all of our families who have allowed us time away from you as we prepared for this race.
Mahalo!
The 2011 Kona Krews
Official times can be viewed here: www.kaiopua.org/news-detail.asp?id=150
Official race photos here: www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=1080747
