When the Hawaiian Canoe Club brings a lot of crews, an uncompromising message is sent to the competition: good luck.
When the Hawaiian Canoe Club brings a lot of crews, an uncompromising message is sent to the competition: good luck.
On Saturday at the Hawaii Canoe Racing Association state championships, Hawaiian will have 39 clubs, almost covering the 41-event field.
Since the Valley Isle club began its era of dominance at the HCRA state regatta in 2001, Hawaiian has not won three times.
Going 11 of 14 is an unbelievable .785 winning percentage or batting average. That’s a nice resume for Hawaiian to hold.
Oahu’s Lanikai interrupted with state crowns in 2008, ’10 and ’12, and each year Hawaiian had less crews. (Kailua, Lanikai’s neighbor and rival, co-shared the 2012 state title.)
In 2012, Lanikai (39 events) and Kailua (34) each finished with 330 points. Hawaiian (35) was next with 325 points, and the Big Island’s Kai Opua (33) was fourth with 301 points.
That year really puts into perspective the dynamic that goes on among those four state contenders.
Even with fewer crews, Hawaiian was in the hunt. And head coach Diane Ho’s club has won before with a numbers disadvantage.
In 2013, Hawaiian (36 events) won the state title with 351 points. Oahu’s Hui Nalu (39) was second with 327 points, and Kai Opua (27) was sixth with 222 points.
Ho, who’s originally from the Big Island, is quick to point out that Hawaiian’s prominence didn’t happen overnight.
“The keiki division is the foundation of our club,” she said. “They’ve consistently won multiple medals over the years. We’ve had a cultural program going on for 25 years and we’ve seen the fruit of that. A lot of those kids are now coaches. We’ve had the same coaches since the 1980s.”
Hawaiian’s kamalii program is a major attraction for youngsters, who paddle to Kahoolawe, Molokai or Lanai to perform community service.
The club also has a state-of-the-art hale, which includes a classroom and conference room for after-school activities and tutoring. The two-story structure sits in Kahului Harbor, the heart of central Maui.
No other club in the state can match what Hawaiian offers, one reason Ho’s powerhouse has pocketed the last 30 Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association titles.
In a sign of absolute dominance, Hawaiian won the Maui association title with 41 medals, including 23 gold. Kihei was next with 25 medals, including seven gold.
No other island had such a wide disparity at its championship.
In fact, maybe Lanikai has it the roughest competing in the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, which was won by Hui Nalu for the third consecutive year. Lanikai was second, Outrigger third and Kailua fourth.
Lanikai is bringing 38 crews and head coach John Foti, who has been with the club for 40 years, knows that a neighbor is the first foe to hop over for a state title.
“Our biggest competition is less than a mile away with Kailua,” he said. “But no question Hawaiian has the strongest and most consistent kids program, and that carries them every year. Whenever someone is thinking about winning the state race, they’re eyeing Hawaiian and seeing where they are in the mix. That’s usually the tell of the tale.”
And don’t forget about Hui Nalu, the Hawaii Kai-based club, on the other side of the island or 12 hours away in Honolulu’s gridlock traffic.
Foti is more than just Lanikai’s head coach. He and his brother Jim Foti helped get the club back on its feet.
“In the 1970s, the club almost folded,” Foti said. “In the 1980s, my brother Jim and I came back from college and rejuvenated the club with help from the old guard. We vowed to help the next generation and pass the torch and keep it going strong.”
Jim Foti paddles for the senior men crew, which won 10 races in a row from 1991 to 2001. He was on the crew that won the 1 ½-mile race last year by more than five seconds ahead of Maui’s Kihei.
Asked the reason for Lanikai’s dominance in the senior men’s race, John Foti scratched his head.
“Good question,” he said, before giving a sharp analytical answer. “We work hard at it, and try to be cutting edge. We’ve created a system and culture that works, and managed to have it transcend to generations. Jim is the last of the old guard on that crew.”
The coach’s son Nick and nephew Noah, who is Maui-born and raised and paddled with Hawaiian, both paddle for Lanikai.
As the head coach, Foti is spared the headache of choosing crews, and hearing about it at home if someone is left on the beach. That’s a call for the other coaches.
“We want to get as many people paddling in this race as we can,” Foti said. “We’re not a win at all cost club. We never have and never will be. Our belief is if you look long term and not worry about the next event coming up, then the winning will come.”
For the Big Island’s Kai Opua, it’s a tough deal when island foes are kicking you in the shins from all directions.
Kai Opua’s bread-and-butter has always been its keiki. But Kai Ehitu has emerged as a big-time threat, and won four youth medals at the Aunty Maile/Moku O Hawaii championships, one less than Kai Opua.
Then in the 40-and-over crowd, Puna captured six gold medals. Kai Opua had four, and Keauhou, once the king of the old-timers, had three golds.
Kai Opua is bringing 30 crews to the state regatta, and chief statistician Mike Atwood figures the numbers won’t work in his club’s favor.
“We know with that quantity we probably won’t do very well in Four A,” he said. “Hawaiian, Lanikai, Hui Nalu will have crews in the high 30s. Even if they get one point, that’s more points than you. We wanted to give all the paddlers who qualified the experience of paddling at the state regatta.”
That’s the same line of thinking as Lanikai’s Foti, and a victory in itself for the state paddlers who may not win a medal of any color, especially if Hawaiian is delivering its uncompromising message.