We had a tropical storm warning and torrential rain over night. The storm warning has now been lifted and it looks like it’s clearing for todays racing. The humidity is high but we are all ready for the day. We will watch the first few races at home on the computer and then go down to the venue. All in all the weather has been incredibly kind to us and there have been no calls to finish racing early or cancelling races because of weather. At the end of hurricane season this is unusual.
We had a gentle start to the morning as our race wasn’t until 11:37am. It was raining and there was a tropical storm Hone approaching. Hone is followed by Hurricane Gilma currently more than 1,000 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii. Despite this the weather was relatively calm, just a bit more swell than there had been earlier in the week.
We did our warm up and went through to the registration. The canoes came in and we loaded out for the last time. It really is an effort to get 8 canoes loaded with over 70 women in the surf and a lot of the crews had very little help. Again we were so lucky to have Linda who organised people to help us.
We had a reasonable start, but just couldn’t catch the others and finished 7th. As soon as we were through the flags Carol said she couldn’t paddle any more. It turns out that she dislocated her collar bone getting into the waka and paddled the whole race like that – Wow what a strong Wahine!!!
Linda whisked her off to the first aid tent and they took one look and sent her straight to the Emergency centre. Linda and Paul were amazing again. I am so grateful we had Linda and Paul looking after us. Getting the insurance sorted so Carol could be seen sounds like it was quite a procedure. Thank goodness for our travel insurance that we all got through Waka Ama NZ which covered us while racing. they have been great.
Carol now has a brace and is pretty sore. I have since heard of younger male paddlers having to withdraw from racing because of ‘getting into the canoe’ injuries. Its been a big challenge, not just for my age group.
It was hard ending the campaign like that, especially since I was getting a ride over to Waimea on the Kona side with a friend. Emily wanted to leave promptly because of the storm coming in and the possibility of flooding and high winds on the road, so I haven’t caught up with Carol since she was rushed off to emergency. I said goodbye to the rest of the crew and will meet up with them in Honolulu on Wednesday.
Tropical storm to Hurricane
Today, Saturday afternoon, the storm is pretty impressive on this side of the island. At the moment the rain is horizontal and winds are howling by at between 40-50 miles per hour. The storm is currently sitting just south of the Big Island and Hilo is getting hit with heavy rain, flooding and big swells. Volcano is without power. It was classed as a tropical storm, but upgraded to a hurricane grade one as the winds increased. All a bit outside my experience:(
There has been widespread flooding but we have been really safe here.
The Great Waikoloa Race
Saturday morning was The Great Waikaloa race. The distances varied. Intermediates and J16s did 5 km. The women and mixed ended up doing 8 miles instead of 10 miles. There was a debate on Friday night about whether the race would be cancelled, but at 8am this morning the wind was OK for the kids to go out. The women and mixed crews went out after that. By this time the wind was rising. It was about 30mph when the women went out. Emily said it probably got up to the mid 30s while she was out and the swells were getting a lot bigger. We just wouldn’t be paddling in those conditions, especially without PFDs and skirts on the waka. There was a mixture of Unlimited canoes, Bradleys and Koa canoes.
I was volunteering on registration. The wind got so bad, not only was I hanging onto all the waivers, but to the table itself! There was an open mens’s crew from Brazil over from Hilo to race as well a Canadian women’s crew and Ruamata’s Pure OCC open mens crew. To be able to race you have to become a member of the HCRA (Hawai’i Canoe Racing Association) for the day. The mens race was cancelled because the wind was now around 40mph and they thought it too dangerous.
Emily raced in the master 60 women’s division and came in second. They give medals for 1st, 2nd & 3rd. It was great to be involved.
The Koa canoes are gorgeous. The one I went to look at was over 100 years old and owned by a family. They are wooden and carved out of a single tree trunk.
Its never too early or too late to start paddling waka ama
We always welcome new members to the Maitahi Outrigger Canoe Club.
We have social and racing waka ama crews catering for a wide variety of ages and abilities.