Hawaiian Canoe Club may be getting better

Friday, June 04, 2004 — Time: 4:42:03 PM EST

Article courtesy The Maui News
By RODNEY S. YAP, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - It's no secret that Hawaiian Canoe Club's four state championships in five years have been keyed by its strong keiki crews.
Winners of six straight keiki division state championships following coach Paul Luuwai's master blueprint, few would argue that HCC doesn't have superior youth crews.

However, when Hawaiian claimed its third straight AAA championship last summer, there was a growing faction within the club that attributed a large part of the winning to superior training.

As far as Hawaiian's men's division is concerned, the latest upgrade was the arrival of paddler/coach Rick Nu'u from New Zealand in 2001 and the techniques he brought with him.

Evaluation of Hawaiian and the rest of the Valley Isle's canoe clubs can begin Saturday, when the John M. Lake Regatta at Kahului Harbor opens the 2004 Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association season. Hawaiian, the 19-time MCHCA champions, will host the regatta in front of its hale, beginning at 8 a.m.

The fact that he did not have any history with the club helped Nu'u shift from paddler to coach.

"Basically everybody had to start on a clean page with me since I didn't know anyone,'' Nu'u recalled. "I remember when I got here in 2001, I was amazed to see how talented the paddlers were. And as I got to know them, I was taken aback by the amount of success they were experiencing.

"All I did was make out a plan. It took some time for them to buy into what I was trying to get them to do, but I think it's worked out quite well.''

Things have gone so well, in fact, that Hawaiian has made Nu'u the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association's first full-time coach. Nu'u's concepts will now be taught throughout the club, uniting all of the divisions as they bid for a fourth straight state championship begins.

"We're training smarter, not necessarily harder,'' Nu'u said. "They had a pretty good formula already in place. We're just trying to continue to build on that.''

While it would take a monumental effort to upstage Hawaiian's perennial powerhouse keiki division, the men have certainly had their share of success recently, returning from Keehi Lagoon last summer with one of the club's three gold medals. Hawaiian's freshmen men, led by Nu'u, won the one-mile race by more than four seconds. Joining Nu'u on the six-member crew were George Dagan, Mael Carey, Tyson Kubo, J.B. Guard and steersman Stewart Kawakami.

Following Hawaiian's big win, Guard credited Nuu's state-of-the-art paddling techniques and vowed to have the result carry over to the distance season. Guard's prognostication came true, and Hawaiian proved its work during the regatta season was no fluke by finishing fifth in the prestigious Molokai Hoe 41-mile open ocean race from Molokai to Oahu. Considered the the Super Bowl of long-distance paddling, Hawaiian set a club record in October in the five-hour grind, which attracted more than 100 crews. Wailea finished a close sixth.

Making up Hawaiian's nine-man long distance crew were Nuu's gold-medal six and Mike Giblin, Rory Frampton and Christopher Smith.

An already formidable men's crew got a turbo boost a few weeks ago, when longtime Wailea paddler Peter Konohia, the stroker for Wailea's junior men and open men's teams, decide to join the Blue and White and stay closer to his Wailuku residence.

Konohia is going to bring a lot to the program, "He'll definitely add a boost,'' Nu'u said.

Nu'u, who was hired to coach professional canoers in Canada just three years ago, credits the local paddlers' dedication and commitment.

"Actually, I gave myself three years to get the men's program up and running,'' said Nu'u, who brings a strong flatwater kayaking background from New Zealand. "So my goal was to get the men's program up to speed with the keiki racing.''

With Luuwai's keiki division anchored as the state's best, Nu'u said his goals are simple.

"I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, all I did was change the tires,'' said Nu'u, who lives in Haiku with his wife, Zoe Norcross, a coastal geologist.

"We finished last year on a really good note,'' Nu'u said. "I think it's more important that we set training goals. Because if we take care of the training, the winning will take care of itself.''

Posted by keizo on Fri, 06/04/2004 - 11:34pm