The next generation

To understand the creed by which Duke Kahanamoku lived — particularly the line of "meeting and leaving people with aloha" — is perhaps best experienced one stroke at a time. The life of Hawaii’s first and greatest Olympian dug its roots deep into the sands of Waikiki and has been watered by the tides to this day.

It is fitting that Saturday, on the 123rd anniversary of Kahanamoku’s birth, some of Hawaii’s next generation of watermen will be competing as friends and friendly competitors in the Hawaii State Paddleboard Championship. The 10-mile course from Maunalua Bay to the beach behind the lei-draped Duke Kahanamoku statue will pass the Natatorium — officially opened with Kahanamoku’s birthday swim in 1927 — and includes the surf break he so loved.

History and its lessons are not lost on this group of teen paddleboarders.

"He was always living his life in the water and this race stresses his love for that," 14-year-old Ethan Siegfried said of Kahanamoku. "It’s powerful but it’s hard to explain, that feeling you have in your heart. It’s such a strong connection that you know you have with him and the ocean."

It certainly was made stronger for Siegfried and nine friends when finishing last month’s 17th Molokai2Oahu Paddleboard World Championships in the team relay division.

Last year, Hunter Pflueger, Nathaniel Yee and Aukai Manson became the youngest at age 13 to complete the 32-mile event across the Ka Iwi Channel; this year, Pflueger, Yee and Peter Cross Jr. finished fourth overall in the men’s relay division (6 hours, 15 seconds), while Siegfried, Manson and Raymond Justice were 13th (6:23.21). The team of Kaiko Manson, Sutter Grune and Riggs Silva added a fourth member approved by race officials in Eliot Shibata; they were 21st (7:06.91).

"They exceeded my expectations," said Alan Pflueger, who coached the group that included his son. "When Hunter first asked two years ago, I thought it was a crazy idea but I didn’t want to say no. There was a sense of adventure.

"Most of them are 14 but they are already experienced watermen. They do a lot of water sports — paddling, surfing, water polo, swimming — and have been doing big paddleboard races for a couple of years. But Molokai is such a sense of accomplishment. They’ve conquered it now and they can climb bigger and bigger mountains."

Not that Saturday’s downwind run is a piece of cake. But it is a slice that now has the teens able to focus on technique and bettering their times of the past few years.

"This will definitely be an easier experience (than Molokai) but, depending on the conditions, it could be a long, flat paddle," Hunter Pflueger said. "The goal is a better time and fun with friends.

"This race, it’s cool we’re in the same waters Duke, who went to the Olympics, paddled and surfed in. We’re honoring his tradition."

"It is such a great feeling that such a legend was in these same waters," 16-year-old Kaiko Manson added. "It’s a good thing to keep that legacy of being in the water going any way we can."

The paddleboarders can almost put a portion of the course on automatic, having made numerous training runs from Wailupe to Sans Souci Beach.

"If it was another sport, you’d call it our home court," Yee said. "We’ve done this race for three years and Molokai taught us some lessons we can use going into it, like hard work and pushing through when it wasn’t really fun."

Alan Pflueger hopes the paddleboarders take a lot more from their races than wins or losses.

"What I like is they aren’t cocky and I don’t have to remind them not to be," he said.

"I tell them about living like Duke Kahanamoku, how his tree of life is planted here in these waters and that it has a great message. This is their opportunity to share that, the message of aloha."