Pan Am Games

OC6 Santa Barbara State Race 07

Good Morning paddlers

Yesterday we had the State Race Regatta for Southern California at Santa Barbara.  The weather was fine as it started with a little overcast and later bright sunshine.  The kids didn’t seem to even notice, as only the adults complained.  First it was too overcast, then it was too hot.  The kids had a great time.  They were like ants all over the beach getting into everything and asking a thousand questions.  Coaches were stressing out and parents looked confused. Cheance Adair was yelling at everyone on the P.A. system.  No one was listening.   It was a normal Regatta race.

It was good to see some of the kids growing up.  Some of the kids I used to coach were hard to recognize now that they are teenagers.  But it never stopped them from saying hi to me.  The girls have grown to become beautiful young women and the boys handsome young men.  The passion for competition is still there and after every race there was the air of intensity of having won or lost.  I think it is one of the great lessons in life.  We learn from every mistake we make and grow on it.  We remember every enjoyable moment for a lifetime and try to repeat it. 

Now that SCORA has fully incorporated the one-man races with the rest of the regattas, I see more and more junior paddlers entering the races.  Also many more girls are entering, which means good news for our future.  On the other end of the age bracket are the seniors.  Our senior brackets are getting crowded, even spilling over into the golden masters.  Some of those old guys are fast too.  I entered the golden masters bracket and thought I had a chance to do well.  Nope.  They were smoking fast before we were even 15 seconds into it.  Oh well what’s the next bracket.  I figured if it was a longer race I could have picked off a few of them, when they slowed down or dropped dead.  Unlike younger brackets, in these brackets you have to account for things that are likely to happen. Call it, “Strategy”. 

Special thanks to all the junior coaches.  They have a hard job.  Often they are coaches, babysitters, father, mother and disciplinarian rolled up in one.  Sometimes they are on the adult teams too and have to attend their own practices after coaching the juniors, making it a long day.  

We should recognize two young junior coaches, first Philip Diehl, probably the youngest in the association, who did a terrific job in his first season.  Philip very recently came out of the, Lanakila junior program and volunteered to take over the coaching job.  Many of his junior teams did very well through out the day prompting a big smile at the end of the day. Mahalo Philip Diehl.

Also coming out of the junior program a few back is Tyson Poppler who takes care of Dana Points oldest Juniors.  Tyson has stepped forward to help improve and advance their performance.  I believe they are planning to enter the Catalina race against other juniors.  Tyson is one of the top adult paddlers from California. You go boy.

Pan American Games

 The year before an Olympic year, which is this year, everyone gets ready by competing in two major games, the World Games and the Pan American Games.  Generally the fastest are sent to the Worlds and the others to the Pan Am.  Keeping a similar formula, the fastest U.S. Kayakers, which we will post later as we find out their names were recently sent to Europe to compete in the Worlds while, Danny Ching, Eric Abbott, Andy Bussey, Bartosz Wolski, Sam Ritchie and David Petrovics of the developmental team were slated for the Pan Am Games.  Arriving recently they have been staying at a sort of athletes condo, which looks pretty clean in an email photo.  Tuesday 24^th, there were some registration and boat problems, but experienced Staff member and Team Leader Henry Krawczk solved it. Women’s kayak team members are Jen Burke, Lauren Austin, Ariel Farrar-Wilson, and Katie Hagler.  Men’s canoe team members are Rob Finlayson, Amniel Naranjo and Alejandro Schwedheim. Except for a few phone calls news has been slow.

The United States is not as dominant in Kayaking as they used to be in the past.  If we can some how entice our young outrigger paddlers to cross over, the outrigger community has an unlimited supply of young athletes that would love to compete against the world.  Well that was my two cents.

Whitefish Montana

My wife and I went to visit my mother in law in Whitefish Montana to relax.  I managed to get in some fly-fishing too.  I knew there was an outrigger club there and decided to visit them.  After asking a few locals, I found a canoe with five paddlers practicing on the lake.  We talked and I joined the crew for a short paddle.  After a while, low and behold two Hawaiians, Pauita and Danny from Kona on jet skis approached us.  They happen to be working for Kukio and were on the job in Montana for a few days.  They were surprised to find an outrigger in Montana.  Pauita said they saw the canoe from the hotel and ran to get jet skis to come talk to us.  After the initial introductions, I invited everyone to a small party that night at my Mother in laws.  She has a beautiful house nestled on five acres with a grand sundeck overlooking the Still Water River. We had a blast singing, with two ukuleles jamming, talking stories and naming people we know.  Whitefish Coach Jen said there is another club located in another lake several miles away.  They raced in the Queen Liliuokalani race before and did pretty well.  Smitty who used to live in Kona, said he was on the Chamber of Commerce and helped regulate Kona’s signs.  He created many of the beautiful carved wooden signs around the restaurants and shops of Kailua.  Smitty met his wife Roberta in Hawaii when she paddled there too.  Roberta danced the hula for us as we played and Pauita sang.  My mother in law Loris Crayon, who lives alone, was thrilled to have all this activity on her sundeck on such a short notice.   So no matter where you go, there’s always an outrigger connection somehow. 

Mahalo to the Staff and members of Santa Barbara for hosting the race.  Also Mahalo to Billy and the boys for hanging out in their escort boats all day.  Great job everyone.

See you guys at Dana Point 9-man race.

Big fat Mahalo  AL