[ PADDLEBOARDING ]

Duncan goes
for No. 4

Honolulu paddleboarder Kanesa Duncan is enjoying the best of both worlds.

She enters tomorrow's Quiksilveredition Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race as the defending women's champion, a title she also won in 2001 and 2002. Outside the water, she's completing her dissertation on hammerhead sharks as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii.

When she first moved to Hawaii several years ago, Duncan devoted much of her time to work and school. But a fellowship the following year from the National Science Foundation eased things financially and gave her more time to spend in the water.

"It was a decision that I made a couple years ago, that I love science and I love what I do and what I'm in," Duncan said, "but I also like being athletic, competing and meeting different people. I wanted both sides of my life and I think I been pretty good at balancing it."

If she wants to win a fourth title, Duncan needs to get past Australian Hayley Bateup, the 2003 winner. Bateup edged Duncan by 3 minutes at last Saturday's 8-mile Hennessey's International Paddleboard Championships at Waikiki.

Duncan wants to see more competitors in the women's field and believes a snowball effect might add to it.

"What girls need to see is a couple more people starting to do it," Duncan said. "Then they'll see it as 'something I can do.' There needs to be more girls starting out at that level. It's hard to start a sport when all you see are women already placing halfway up (the men's field). That might be a bit intimidating."

The spiritual side of the race helps ease Duncan's nerves. Before the competitors set out from Kaluakoi Hotel and Golf Club on Molokai Maunalua Bay Beach Park in Hawaii Kai, they come together in a circle for a Hawaiian chant.

"You know when you finish; everyone that finishes the race feels the same way, so there is a bond between everybody, even between the first guy and the last guy," Duncan said.

"You feel that in the morning in the circle and when you get onto the starting line, everybody holds hands, so it's a camaraderie thing. Everyone is my friend. You don't have that much time to get nervous."