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Paddlers celebrate return of summer season

By Dakota Grossman 4 min read

LAHAINA -- Energy and excitement filled the hot Saturday air as paddlers and spectators gathered at the crowded Hanakao'o (Canoe) Beach Park for the first Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association summer regatta since 2019.

As the season kicked off with the Moki Kalanikau Regatta -- ending a two-year pause caused by the pandemic -- Kihei Canoe Club coach Kawika Williams stood by the shoreline with a smile.

"It's been great. There's so much good energy right now," Williams said. "This is the stuff we've been missing, you know, we've been on hiatus for two years now. This is great."

A coach for over 30 years, Williams said that it was still a little stressful as Kihei hosted the first regatta back on Saturday, but everything came together as planned.

"The whole club came early and set up everything and a lot of people showed up, surprisingly," Williams said. "There were a couple hiccups and stuff, but everything is running great right now. Everyone is so pumped up and excited to race because everyone's just been cooped up and it's nice to get out."

Kihei collected a few wins throughout the day, including the men's and women's 55, mixed 55, women's 40, women's open and women's 65, the winning crew of which comprised Anita Anderson, Bonney Esbensen, Jan Everett, Sharon Goldenberg, Katy Smith, and Vanessa Weiss -- they won the half-mile race in a time of 4 minutes, 56.89 seconds.

"We won our race this morning and that was great, but my focus is on the junior program," said Weiss, the club's keiki coach. "Although we are (state) champions in the 65, so I hope to repeat that."

Having paddled and coached for over 40 years, Weiss said she was happy to have the regatta season back.

Over in South Maui, crews have been practicing in "crazy weather" and choppy waves, so it was nice having smooth conditions on race day in West Maui, she said.

"They're having a good time. It's their first race for most of them and it can only go up," Weiss said of the junior crews. "They're doing quite well considering the conditions we practice in -- usually, south side is flat, but not at 3 in the afternoon after school, so that's one thing we battle with."

Another challenge is dealing with erosion that has chipped away at the beach at Ka Lae Pohaku along South Kihei Road.

"I wish we can have a regatta at our site, but we don't have beach even for our own canoes, so every day it's very stressful getting all our kids in and out," she said. "I wish it was different but it's just what we have to deal with, so you know, we look forward to coming here -- a lot of beach and flat water -- and we're just going to continue working on our technique and hopefully do better each week."

Hawaiian Canoe Club, which had won 35 straight MCHCA championships prior to the pandemic, came back with a strong showing Saturday as they won 24 of the races to earn 164 points. Kihei finished second overall with 91 points, followed by Lae'ula O Kai with 78.

Just after HCC finished first in the girls 15-and-under division, the boys 15s won their half-mile race in 4:06.48. Napili finished second with a time of 4:25.92 and Kihei was third (4:36.25).

"I'm pretty excited because this is my first race of my life as a steersman," said Hawaiian steersman Sig Konohia, who was joined in the canoe by Jake Dent-Brocklehurst, John Kaahui, James McCrystal, Keanu Reyes and Tristen Toker. "It's a lot of weight on my shoulders. If anything goes wrong in the boat, it's on me, so during the race, my mindset was just to stay straight. I wasn't really focused on winning."

Konohia later joined the boys 18-and-under crew of Barrett Barnard, Jake Devane, Elias Hamp, Finn McAfee and Caleb Proctor to clock the fastest half-mile time of the day at 3:56.03.

Having competed as a freshman in the Maui Interscholastic League, Konohia said that the high school season prepared him for the summer competition.

"I'm excited because our canoe is pretty good -- a bunch of the boys in there are dedicated and come to practice every day," he said.

Up next, clubs return to Hanakao'o next Saturday for the Keiki O Maui Regatta, hosted by Lahaina Canoe Club.

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.

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MCHCA Moki Kalanikau Regatta

Saturday's Results

Team Standings

At Hanakao'o (Canoe) Beach Park

Hawaiian 164, Kihei 91, Lae'ula O Kai 78, Napili 59, Na Kai Ewalu 44, Wailea 29, Lahaina 29, Kahana 3.

Starting at /week.