[PADDLING]
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Master navigator Nainoa Thompson is fond of saying, "The canoe will get you there, but you have to decide the destination." Bartlett, Napoleon break
Ka’iwi relay recordBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comYesterday, the destination for 114 canoes was an Oahu finish line. More than 240 paddlers in single (OC-1) and double (OC-2) canoes made the 40.2-mile trek from Kaluakoi, Molokai, to the Ala Wai Harbor in the 13th Starbucks Ka'iwi Channel Relay.
After 4 1/2 hours of very decent surfing conditions, it came down to a last-minute sprint, with just 19 seconds separating the top two teams. Kai Bartlett and new partner Aaron Napoleon finished in a record time of 4 hours, 30 minutes and 26 seconds, with Maui Kjeldsen and Karel Tresnak Jr. second in 4:30:45.
The old mark was 4:36:07, set by Bartlett and Tresnak in 2000. The partnership broke up this year when Bartlett decided to go with the Polaris canoe he designed and built. Tresnak was in a new Stingray, designed by his father, Karel Sr.
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"It ran pretty good," Bartlett said of his canoe. "It's a great boat for all-around paddling. I thought that the Stingray would be faster in the calmer stuff and it was. They started moving on us in town (off Waikiki). I paddled my guys out at the end because I knew Maui was on our tail."It was a two-boat race just an hour into the event, with Bartlett-Napoleon ahead most of the way.
"It went back and forth, but we were always playing catch-up," said Tresnak. "We saw Mike (Judd) and Thibert (Lussiaa) coming up from the south about the third hour, but we knew it was pretty much a race between us and Kai and Aaron.
"We made our last (crew) change outside the old pool (Natatorium) and Maui took it home. He loves flat water and he made up tons of ground. We were hoping they'd make another change and we'd be able to catch them."
Napoleon said a crew change had been planned for the buoy at the mouth of the harbor, with him replacing Bartlett for the sprint to the finish line.
"We had maybe 25 yards on them with Maui coming up on us and looking really strong," said Napoleon. "Kai had a spurt, started moving, and I told our coach (Kalani Young) that I thought Kai could pull it off. He had started the race, why not let him finish it. We didn't make the change and Kai pulled it off."
This was just the third time Napoleon had competed in this event. The previous years, he had teamed with his older brother, Joey.
Mike Judd, who won last year's race with partner John Foti, teamed with Thibert Lussiaa to finish third. Their time of 4:33:05 also broke the 2000 record. Just eight minutes separated the top eight canoes.
"It was a fabulous race with great surfing," said Judd. "There was a lot of new equipment out there. We were using a Makia, so the top three canoes were all different."
The women's division crowned a new winner. Lauren Spalding and Megan Harrington-Jones finished in 5:38:09, more than four minutes ahead of Noe Sawyer and Dane Ward (5:42:50). Paula Crabb and Kisi Haine were 11 seconds behind in third.
Other OC-1 division winners were: Patsy Vasquez-Kelly Fey (40-over women, 5:52:26); Marc Haine-Marc Rigg (40-49 men, 4:47:23); Greg Davis-Kawika Goodale (50-over men, 5:15:03); and Jill Schooler-Nathan Shore (mixed, 5:21:02).
Thanks to a staggered start that sent the OC-2 divisions off 30 minutes before most of the OC-1 paddlers, the first canoe to finish was the mixed OC-2. With teammates Ken Powell and Amy Young cheering from the escort boat, Cherisse Kelii and Scott Jones crossed the line a little before Bartlett-Napoleon.
"We were all worried that it was going to be flat, and nobody wants to paddle a flat channel," said Powell, the steersman when he and Young were in the canoe. "The winds started coming up (Saturday), which gave us hope. When we woke up (yesterday), it was blowing.
"On the two-man, it's great if you can get some big waves. If it's 8-10 feet, it's an E-Ticket ride. It was smaller than that but we caught some good waves mid-channel. It is so much fun on the two-man."
The OC-2 relay changed from a three-person to a four-person team this year. Another change specified that a female had to be in the canoe at all times.
The OC-2 men's division was won by the crew of Tommy Damon, Jeff Brown, Rob Harrison and Andrew Glatzel. Both OC-2 women's entries pulled out of the race Saturday.