GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
North Shore Canoe Club's Folly Murdock, front, Kimberly Walsh, Jennifer Smith, Chana Demitt and Brynn Thurston won the Women's Masters 40 Division one-mile race yesterday at Keehi Lagoon. The Kaneohe Canoe Club won the regatta, two weeks before the Hui Wa'a Championships.
Dominant Kaneohe
getting betterThe Hui Wa'a club has won
six of seven regattas this season
As good and as dominant as Kaneohe Canoe Club has already been this season, perhaps most frightening for the rest of the competition is that it appears the association leader is still improving.
Boosted even more than usual by its traditionally strong youth paddlers and getting a solid performance from its adults, Kaneohe scorched the rest of Na Ohana O Na Hui Wa'a at the Koa Kai Regatta at Keehi Lagoon yesterday, with regatta- and season-high totals of 94 overall points and 14 wins in 36 events.
The Windward-side club has won six of seven regattas this season, with only one more to go at Waikiki Beach on Sunday before the Hui Wa'a Championships on July 19.
"The kids did awesome," said Junior Parrilla, Kaneohe's regular adults coach and the acting head coach yesterday. Regular head coach Clint Anderson, who also normally focuses on Kaneohe's kids, was feeling "under the weather," according to Parrilla.
"They scored 58 points," he added, "and the adults came back and scored 36 points. So there's a complement there. The team as a whole is doing real well, and it's all a tribute to Coach Clint's training and all the assistant coaches' training."
Customarily pushing the club to sizable leads before the second half of regattas -- when most of the adults race -- Kaneohe's kids delivered a virtual knockout blow instead yesterday: They took 10 of 13 youth events, finishing second twice and third once in the ones they didn't win.
During one flawless stretch from races No. 2 through 8 (which included six kids and one adults race, mixed novice B), Kaneohe reeled off seven wins in a row.
"Good coaching and the heart to paddle" is the recipe for their success, said Kaneohe's Chase Silva, 16, whose boys 16-and-under crew is undefeated this season. "We all just have fun out there. ... (And) it feels real good knowing that I'm a part of (all the club's wins)."
Lokahi, the victor in the one regatta Kaneohe didn't win two weeks ago, placed first in the prestigious men's and women's senior races yesterday, but finished well behind in the overall standings with 71 points and eight wins -- its sixth AAA (18-plus crews entered) runner-up finish on the year. Manu O Ke Kai (38) finished third.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Darren Dante, front, Kelly Ahu, Jay Donovan, Arthur Smith, Neal Gushi and Mark Hines of the Waikiki Yacht Club finished second in the Men's Masters one-mile race yesterday.
Host Koa Kai (34) defeated Na Keiki O Ka Moi (30) in the AA division (nine-17 crews), while Waikiki Beach Boys (21) won the A division (six-eight crews).
"We're pretty confident we can (still) put together something" for the final regular-season race and Hui Wa'a Championships, said Lokahi head coach Robert Viernes. "The thing is, if the other clubs' kids can take some of the points away from Kaneohe, and help us out a little. Right now, it doesn't seem like it. Right now, we practically have to win everything (of the adults races) to catch up."
Viernes was joined by Christopher Tseu, Eddie Davis, Michael Cushnie, Earl Cobb Jr. and steersman Terry Hamamoto to win the 1 1/2-mile men's senior race in 11 minutes and 43.06 seconds, just over two ticks faster than second-place Ka Moi (11:45.77). Lokahi had trailed Ka Moi by about a quarter-boat length until the final half-mile.
The win was Lokahi's fourth straight in the division, though it has been the most closely contested one in terms of season point totals in Hui Wa'a this season.
"It feels good -- it always feels good to win," Hamamoto said.
He said keys to their success among the tough competition are "being calm and being focused in the race. Can't really worry about what the other guys are doing; you gotta worry about what your own crew is doing."
On the opposite end of the accomplishment spectrum but also winning, Lokahi's women's senior crew (Jenn Thompson, Carol Jaxon, Dy Valdez, Karen Dunai, Bozo Vierra and Iwa Bush) won its 53rd consecutive Hui Wa'a race, at 12:58.99, about 15 seconds ahead of second-place Waikiki Beach Boys.
Note: The Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, the island's other association, next competes on Sunday at the Kaupiko Regatta at Keehi Lagoon.
