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Saturday, August 19, 2000
Outrigger Canoe The paddlers of Outrigger Canoe Club's two-time defending Molokai Hoe open men's championship crew aren't broken, but they are doing some fixing anyway.
Club looking
towards future
OCC will begin grooming its
younger paddlers and will
showcase them in tomorrow's
Duke Kahanamoku RaceBy Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-BulletinOutrigger stunned the paddling community two years ago when it entered the world championship of long distance canoe season as a dark horse, but finished in the winner's circle.
With crew of vastly different sizes, ages and paddling experience, Outrigger caught everyone by surprise in 1998. It then solidified its status as champion with victories in last year's long distance season opener and closer -- the Duke Kahanamoku Race and Molokai Hoe, respectively.
The start of another long distance season begins with tomorrow's 24-mile Duke Kahanamoku Race from Kailua Beach to Duke Kahanamoku Beach next to the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
The Outrigger paddlers find themselves no longer together as a crew, but definitely not divided in spirit nor club unity.
Three of the older men from the Molokai championship crews the past two years, as well as two who participated just last year, have moved up to the masters division (35 years and over) from the open division.
While all those involved with the men's program at Outrigger realize that with this bold move they are severely hindering their chances of winning any of the long distance races this season - and basically relinquishing any real shot at defending their Molokai title -- they feel that it will pay dividends in the years to come.
"We decided to make the changes so that a younger group of guys could step in and start to build for the future," men's head distance coach Colin Perry said.
"We want to groom the younger guys -- the next generation -- and we realize that it will probably be a 2-3 year process before we're seriously contending in the open division again."
The older Outrigger paddlers are still recognized among the best paddlers in the state. Perry said that his top paddlers are probably evenly divided among the open and masters crew for this year.
Moving on to masters, but going out as the two-time defending Molokai champions, are Walter Guild, Marc Haine and Matt Rigg. Also moving on are Mark Rigg and Courtney Seto, members of last year's championship crew. All but Mark Rigg are over 40 years old.
Perry conducted time trials in one-man canoes Wednesday to help him decide who will fill the holes in the open crew.
"We have a group of younger paddlers who have been real anxious to move up to the open crew for some time now, but because of the caliber of our older paddlers they couldn't bust in," Perry said.
"Now they will have their chance, but we need to figure out who fits where. We're definitely the underdog and Lanikai probably the favorite. But we feel we have nothing to lose because the expectations aren't so high."
Though the older generation can move on, knowing they are going out as champions, their competitive spirit and pride also tug at them. This type of move has been done with previous generations at the perennially successful club based at the foot of Diamond Head, yet the decisions are never easy.
"This has been something that our group of older guys has thought about for several years," new masters member Guild said. "Most of us were fortunate enough to have won these last two years in a row, and some of us were also members of the Molokai champion Outrigger crews of the late '80s.
"It was a nice finish to our open careers and now is a good time to step aside, but obviously there's some disappointment. It's something we're willing to live with though."
The women's division of the Duke Kahanamoku Race also will be held tomorrow, beginning at 8 a.m. Their figure-8 course runs six miles from Kailua Beach to Mokulea Rock, around Popoia Island and back.
The men's race begins 30 minutes after the finish of the women's race.