KAILUA-KONA — Kai Opua ran away with the first regatta of the Moku O Hawaii season, but with a busy weekend filled with distractions, it took a full club effort to pull out a win in the season’s second regatta
KAILUA-KONA — Kai Opua ran away with the first regatta of the Moku O Hawaii season, but with a busy weekend filled with distractions, it took a full club effort to pull out a win in the season’s second regatta at Kailua Bay.
“It was just a tough day,” Kai Opua Club president Bo Campos said. “We were missing a lot of our paddlers because of graduation. Keauhou battled us, but we buckled down and got through all the distractions. We had some great efforts and some disappointments, but that is what the sport is all about — battling.”
A win in the women’s open four and a runner-up finish in the men’s open four — two of the final three races of the 42-event regatta — solidified the narrow victory for Kai Opua.
Host club Keauhou finished just 10 points behind in the standings, despite competing in four fewer events than Kai Opua. Kai Ehitu continued its upward trend, finishing third with six first place finishes and 19 total medals.
“I’m satisfied with what we did today,” Keauhou head coach Al Estencion said. “Every club is in the same position with graduations this weekend, and we had to deal with lot of our strong paddlers being gone because of a big solo race on Molokai. I think by the time we go to Hilo, everyone will be focused and our team will be really strong.”
Keauhou had nine first-place finishes at the event, two better than Kai Opua, Puna and Keaukaha, which all finished with seven.
Two of Keauhou’s gold medals came in the girls 13 and 14 races.
“Our youth is holding their own, but we are limited by the number of kids we have coming out,” Estencion said. “This is a building program, so it is coming along, but everybody is getting along and the morale is high.”
Keauhou also took home the gold in the women’s golden masters with a time of 4:48:58, edging Puna by just a few seconds for a second consecutive week.
“It is a hard race,” said Sherri Carney, the steerswoman on the crew. “We have been doing great this season, but Puna is always close behind.”
Carney credited the efforts of Estencion — who is in his first year as the Keauhou club head coach — for always pushing the crews.
“It’s exactly what we need,” Carney said.
Putting in the extra effort in the water and seeing the spoils of victory has Carney excited not only about the rest Moku season, but also the IVF Vaa World Sprints, scheduled Aug. 12-17 in Rio de Janeiro. She will be competing with an Island Masters crew that is the defending champion in the women’s 60 race, but said Keauhou will also be sending participants to the event that happens every two years.
“It’s like the Olympics of outrigger paddling,” Carney said. “It is a real honor to be competing in an event of that caliber.”
Unlike last week, the water was relatively calm at Kailua Bay, but inconsistent winds wreaked havoc throughout the day, even causing a few hulis.
“There were some really gusty winds out there,” Carney said. “You really stick on the turns when it’s like that.”
Despite the winds, the westside crews will likely miss the home field advantage of the Kailua Bay waters later this season. After a week off and the Kai Opua hosted regatta June 7, the crews will move to Hilo for the remainder of the season.
“It’s like day and night,” said Carney of the different venues. “We have nice blue water and the kids can jump off the pier. We even had dolphins out there today swimming beside us, flying up out of the air.”
Estencion had a coach’s point of view when it came to the change in location.
“I like Hilo,” Estencion said. “The view is good and you get to see the mistakes. It makes our paddlers better focused because everybody is watching how you are paddling and your timing. Over here, you cannot get a real vision of what our crews are doing. You can only see them from the back. In Hilo, nobody can mess around.”
