Monday, September 17, 2001

[ CANOE PADDLING ]

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kai Opua Canoe Club crew members, left to right, Kaioa
Hala Latu, Scott Jones, Billy Balding, Nue Youderian,
Bruce Ayau and Kevin Lindsey, congratulated each other
yesterday after their victory at the Ko Olina Marina.

Kai Opua
wins Skippy

Lanikai's late start proves
costly; the club catches the
leaders, but fades and
settles for second place

---

By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.com

If there is anything to be learned from yesterday's Skippy Kamakawiwo'ole paddling race from Maunalua Bay to Ko Olina, it is that you can't give a crew as strong as Kai Opua a head start.

Kai Opua took the title by more than two minutes on the overcast day, holding off challenges from New Zealand/Hawaii and Lanikai as late as three-quarters of the way through the course. New Zealand/Hawaii led at one point in the race, but could not match Kai Opua through the homestretch. New Zealand was passed for second place by a surging Lanikai just before the boats reached Diamond Head.

Lanikai had no other path to the front but a late surge after getting to the starting line late, with the rest of the field already under way. Lanikai surged out of the channel and past the starting line, passing boat by boat until it finally caught up with front-running Kai Opua just outside Honolulu Harbor. The boat stayed with Kai Opua until Barbers Point, where it learned that it had expended too much energy to challenge the leaders any further.

"It just took too much out of us chasing them," Lanikai's Kalani Irvine said. "We had a good race; Kai Opua is just too strong to let them have that big of a lead."

Kai Opua just kept about its business, building a larger lead by every stroke and leaving Lanikai hoping to just hold on to second place, which it did.

Kai Opua crossed the finish line in 3 hours and 41 minutes, just as Lanikai was making the turn approximately a half-mile away. As it crossed the line and was declared the winner, its six paddlers turned toward the crowd on the shore and held hands, making a human chain in front of the flying Stars and Stripes taped to the back of the boat that trailed it all the way from Maunalua Bay.

Kai Opua won easily, but its paddlers know that the Skippy Race is merely a tuneup for the next event -- the Molokai Hoe -- Oct. 7. Still, the team was encouraged by the win and figures that at this point it may be more prepared for three weeks from now.

But a lot can happen in three weeks.

"We kinda stuck with what we have been doing in the last month of training," Kai Opua coach Al Estencion said. "I think New Zealand and Lanikai might be still searching for their top nine while we have already bonded."

Imua No. 2 took the open glass division by more than a minute over Kaioni No. 1 with a time of 4:53.35 and a finish of 42nd overall. Hui Lanakila No. 2 won the senior masters division with a run of 4:26.01, easily beating Outrigger No. 3's second-place time of 4:33.03. Hui Lanakila No. 3 had an even easier time in the Masters 35 race, beating Kailua No. 2 by a full eight minutes.

Outrigger No. 1 finished the race in 3:59.54 in the Open Koa Division.