After initially falling behind talented rivals Hui Nalu and Lanikai, Outrigger rallied to take the lead and maintained the advantage to claim gold at the 52nd edition of the Duke Kahanamoku Long Distance Race.
The 26-mile trek from Kailua to Waikiki Beach was held Sunday amid the summer heat and humidity along with calm ocean conditions as thousands of supporters and onlookers watched from the sand and above from nearby hotel balconies.
Outrigger crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 57 minutes, 20 seconds, and held off defending champion Hui Nalu (2:57:40) and Lanikai (2:59:51) in the lead pack. Outrigger’s second crew (3:06:53) finished in fourth ahead of Outrigger’s junior squad (3:11:18), which won its division, Lanikai’s men’s 40 crew (3:12:10), which also led its category, and Kailua (3:12:33).
“This was our first six-man race together as a team, so it gives us a good gauge of our fitness,” said Tupuria King of Outrigger’s victorious crew. “Off the start, we were facing headwinds and side winds, and Lanikai was definitely strong and was leading that piece. Hui Nalu actually got a good lead on us in the next section, and while our Makapu‘u run wasn’t the best, we kept them in sight, and after we came around Hawaii Kai and got into some surf, we surf well so that’s where our fitness came through and we moved ahead.”
King was joined in the winning red-and-white canoe by Ryland Hart, Hunter Pflueger, Kalachandji Diaz, Antonio Miranda, Tuarongo Cowan, Bronson Napoleon, Heinere Itchner and Kaihe Chong.
The competition featured 42 men’s crews that followed a course spanning from Kailua Beach, around Makapu‘u, past Hawaii Kai and Diamond Head, and finished adjacent to the pier on Duke Kahanamoku Beach fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.
“It was an awesome race, because we all took a turn at leading – Outrigger made its move at the right time, and held onto it,” said Hui Nalu captain Mario Mausio. “We tried to come back and closed the gap a bit, but it wasn’t enough. We needed 1 or 2 more miles, and maybe we would have caught them. To improve, we can tidy up our changes and stroke rates as our crew of local boys and international paddlers comes together.”
Mausio was accompanied by Shon Siemonek, Gavin Hanoa, Nathan Kilakila Loyola, Michael-Daniel Keli‘ipuleole, Paul Chong, Conan Herbert, Bryce Irving and George Wilson.
Over the past few long-distance seasons, Outrigger and Hui Nalu have been progressive in supplementing their local paddlers with athletes from paddling hotbeds including Tahiti. The hybrid crews have led to faster times as competitors move to raise their collective game.
“More and more teams are mixed and mingling, and we learn from each other,” said King. “We know that the Tahitians are the best, so it’s nice to incorporate paddlers from there, New Zealand, Hawaii and California because it’s a sharing of culture as well.”
Lanikai, conversely, has stuck to its canoe club model, and its participants are all locally based. Veteran paddler and current Lanikai steersman Karel Tresnak Jr., who in past years competed with a hybrid team, gives credit to his counterparts who compete with the “super crews,” but suggests that those groups be classified as teams rather than competing under the banners of local canoe clubs.
“I don’t think you should be classified as a club if you’re bringing in paddlers from other countries; in that case, you’re a team, not a club,” said Tresnak Jr. “A lot of paddlers will agree that it comes off as fake to call yourself a club. But, everyone has their own opinion, so we’ll get back to work on correcting a few things.”
The first edition of the Duke Kahanamoku Long Distance Race was held in 1968, and the event has continued to evolve along with paddlers’ approach to the sport and advancements in technology. The initial winning time was recorded at 3 hours, 44 minutes and 8 seconds; streamlined fiberglass canoes, lighter, stronger composite paddlers and a rigorous cross-training approach to the sport by paddlers have allowed elite competitors to shave nearly an hour off the top finishing times compared to those posted five decades ago.
The Duke Race is the first full-field competition of the long-distance campaign, and was held two weeks after paddlers completed the regatta sprint season. Lanikai won its second consecutive Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association State Championship at Hanalei Bay on Kauai on Aug. 3, and its paddlers are looking to ride the wave of positive momentum further into the distance season.
“You really needed to have trained coming into today, because we weren’t getting anything out there and the water was backing up,” said Raven Aipa, a member of Lanikai’s men’s 55 crew, when describing the currents that pulled against the canoes as they followed the coastline.
Crews used the race to start fine-tuning their blend and technique in anticipation of the Molokai Hoe on Oct. 13. Competitors from around the world will attempt to knock off the Tahitians, who had won the prestigious competition 11 consecutive times until Red Bull Wa‘a, which is based in Kona and includes Tahitian paddlers in its crew, took home the sought-after hardware two years ago. Defending Molokai Hoe champion Shell Va‘a has won the race 11 times over the last 13 years.
On Sunday, the women will take to the water for the annual Dad Center Race from Kailua Beach to the Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikiki. Crews will look to overtake Team Bradley, which has claimed 11 of the last 13 Na Wahine O Ke Kai titles — including six straight Molokai-to-Oahu crowns from 2005 to 2010.
