Monday, April 23, 2001

[CANOE/KAYAK]

Tresnak surfs
to win in Oahu
Championships

By Linda Aragon
Special to the Star-Bulletin

The winds finally turned in their favor.

Literally.

The racers of Kanaka Ikaika finally had good wind conditions for the Oahu Championships of solo canoe and kayak racing.

After a season of light winds, which made for flat water and nonexistent surf, the return of yesterday's tradewinds brought optimal conditions for the 18-mile Makai Pier to Magic Island race.

Winds blowing 15- to 20-mph provided rideable ocean swells from Makapuu to Diamond Head.

"The people with surfing skills will stand out," Kanaka Ikaika president, Karen Kiefer, said prior to the race.

Consistent with Kiefer's prediction, Karel Tresnak Jr., known for his ability to surf waves, recaptured the top spot from Mike Judd.

Judd had led for most of the season with a series of impressive victories.

"You just take off on these 200- to 300-yard rides," said Tresnak.

Judd, who has won five of this year's races, finished second, two minutes behind Tresnak.

At the race's start on the Windward side of Makapuu, five paddlers -- all who compete for Lanikai Canoe Club -- broke away from the pack.

After rounding the point at Makapuu, Judd and brothers John and Jim Foti took an outside course while Kai Bartlett and Tresnak hugged the cliff's wall.

Around Portlock, Bartlett kept his inside course as the others stayed on the outside, with the exception of Trenak.

Tresnak took the middle ground and passed a few of the short-course competitors on the way to his win.

"I stayed right in between,'' said Tresnak. "It felt good where I was, and it turned out to be a good run.

"It was a good day for Lanikai on the Outrigger Canoe Club's territory.''

It was also a good day for Aaron Napoleon, who not only came in the top three, but was the first non-Lanikai paddler to finish.

In the women's division, it doesn't seem to matter what the conditions are or type of boat that determines the outcome. Kelly Fey has once again proved she won't be beat.

Even after losing some time when she flipped her canoe yesterday, Fey kept her lead to take the top spot in the women's solo canoe division.

This is the second season Fey has used a canoe after years of dominating the kayak division. In next month's Molokai solo crossing, Fey will be defending her title as last year's OC-1 winner.

In the men's kayak division, "It could have been a different story today," said first-place finisher Jim Beaton.

In the long course, Beaton and Wyatt Jones held off racers from California by using their home-course advantage to get around the rough spots of Makapuu and surf ahead of the pack into Magic Island.

After a tight finish, Beaton said Jones finished 10 seconds in front of him, but didn't get the win because of an official's disqualification.

The women, too, battled until the end.

At the Magic Island buoy, within sight of the finish line, long-course kayaker, Christy Borton passed Nicole Wilcox Pedersen to take first place.

While three novice-B women were neck and neck, Jennifer Thompson Tuzon was able to keep her lead and add yesterday's race to her collection of wins for the division of first-year, short-course racers.

Kiefer was the first overall female finisher in the nine-mile short-course kayak race.

Next week's race increases the distance to a 21-mile course from Hawaii Kai to Ewa Beach for the State Championships. The short course from Magic Island to Ewa Beach is 11 miles.

For many of the elite paddlers, these races are just warmups for next month's 32-mile Molokai-to-Oahu solo race.

Paddlers are hoping for surf because last year's flat conditions proved this can be an awfully grueling, long, hot run.

This year's competition in the Kaiwi Channel, two-time winner Tresnak is expecting a battle from Judd, a Kona native, who has been fine-tuning his surfing skills since moving to Oahu more than a year ago.

However, if the course is flat, this could also prove to Judd's advantage, or to any racer who is strong enough to pound out the distance in light conditions.

For the women, third-place finisher Megan Clark, said her new boat, Outrigger Connection's Axis, should prove beneficial in the channel.

"It has lighter volume, so it helps (a lighter paddler) get in the surf easier," she said. "You go hard to get on the bumps and then you ride and that gives you a few seconds to take a rest and drink water and take a deep breath. Today was the kind of race that helps you get prepared for the Kaiwi Channel."