With ban lifted, MCHCA eyes possible races, regatta
There may be some activity for the Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association this summer after all.
The regatta season has already been canceled, but with Gov. David Ige’s recent decision to lift the suspension of ocean sports competition, the MCHCA has set its sights on a couple distance races and perhaps one regatta in August and September.
“It looks like we might have some boats in the water come this later summer, probably in August when usually the long distance season starts,” MCHCA president Keone Ball said Wednesday. “It looks like Lae‘ula O Kai might be having their tag-team race and Kihei Canoe Club is looking to have their relay race. It might be a different course, but they are definitely in the planning stages for that. So those are kind of exciting.”
He added: “Kihei might also do a sort of regatta-style race — they’re still working on the details of that, too — so pretty exciting that we might have a little bit of fun competition out there.”
Ball said the tentative dates for the competitions are Aug. 20 or 21 for the Lae‘ula race and Aug. 28 for the Kihei event. The possible regatta will tentatively take place sometime in September at the Kihei Canoe Club site at Ka Lae Pohaku, Ball said.
He added that the overriding vibe from an MCHCA board meeting Tuesday night was positive.
“Especially with some of those long distance events coming up, people are psyched, they’re excited about that, some normalcy, getting back to some normalcy,” Ball said. “The relay ones are fun, too, because you’re not going the whole way, right? You’re doing change outs, so it’s something that we can hold with the condition people are in right now. In preparation for that we can start quality practices, so definitely some sense of normalcy with those announcements.”
Most of the bigger long distance races for the fall around the state have already been canceled — including the Molokai Hoe and Na Wahine O Ke Kai — but the Queen Liliuokalani Race on the Big Island is on for Labor Day weekend Sept. 4-6, Ball said.
“It’s going to be a little bit smaller, but same course and everything — last I heard, like, 15 women’s (crews) and 15 men’s already signed up,” he said. “So, as the word gets out I think they’ll get more.”
Ball said the governor’s decision to lift the ban on ocean competitions came just a little too late for the MCHCA to hold its traditional summer regatta season.
“Yeah, we have permitting issues and things like that so it was a little too late to do that and to get people into any sort of shape basically because nobody’s been practicing,” Ball said. “But we hope by August things will be lifted even more so that we can actually do the races that Lae‘ula and Kihei are proposing.”
Ball said that just a reason to practice this summer is big for the keiki paddlers.
“That’s what kids look forward to, right? Summer paddling season, I don’t know if that’s going to happen for the kids,” Ball said. “We tried to do something but most of the clubs are not prepared to do that at this time, which is kind of a bummer for everybody. Of course, if clubs could do it they would do it, but logistically it’s just too overwhelming. … We’re going to gear up for next year.”
Hawaiian and Kihei canoe clubs both have youth paddlers practicing, but Ball is not aware of any others in the county doing so.
“That’s super encouraging for me,” Ball said. “Then I hope high school paddling comes back because that’s a fun event for the kids, super unique because the clubs have to help each other, especially for the small schools. A lot of those kids paddle together during the summer, but they’re competitors during the winter because they go to different schools.”
Hawaiian and Kihei threw together an impromptu regatta on Thursday that included more than 100 keiki paddlers from the two clubs. HCC keiki coach Paul Luuwai said Friday that the clubs may put together a few more similar events as the summer goes on.