Nice race. We collected A LOT of canned goods…don’t know how many pounds yet, but paddlers’ generous donations will be greatly appreciated by some people who are less fortunate on Thanksgiving. Mahalo.
Big mahalo to all paddlers who came out to race and our supporting staff, safety boat drivers, and sponsors. As for conditions, the wind was finicky and chose to turn light southeast when the race started. Not much free rides, we did work. Many paddlers were nudged into the surfline by the wind and swell direction around Diamond Head where an East swell wrap sought out anyone who didn’t take an occasional peak over their shoulder.
Kalei Kahookele, although mistakingly listed as M18-39 division (will be corrected), dominated the growing Junior Division which will soon need to be subdivided by ages. It was good to see some SUPaddlers out there mixing it up, with Robert Stehlik heading the pack. Kekoa Bruhn claimed the V1 title and announced he would be going back to his “traditional” paddling roots after burning his rudder after at the Halloween race and setting out to be the next Superman Aito Champion. Yeah Koa! The women’s division was owned by Jane Mckee who recently chose to retire and pursue paddling full time. OC2 winners and first overall finishers were Billy Pratt and Evan Rhodes — stop sandbagging boys. Overall SurfSki went to Steven Ball and Overall OC1 belonged to Pat Dolan. Congrats. And a big congratulation and Happy Birthday to Uncle Harold Akeo, an inspiration to many, who was accidentally put into the 50-59 division…it didn’t matter, he won that too.
One announcement: Please try to pre-register gang. Every race we get one hundred paddlers trying to register a half hour before race-day registration closes and this causes problems. Not only is it difficult to get you registered, but we aren’t able to turn in a head count for how much food to cook for lunch.
To address the comment regarding the list of boat models, this information is entered in pre-registration by participants. We add this category to support boat builders, but if the vessel model doesn’t show up in the results, it’s because either the paddler didn’t list it or they did not pre-register. Again, crunching 100 paddlers into less than half an hour on race day means we are pressed for time to start the race, and if we don’t include the boat model, we didn’t have the time to type it in. We will not take out the boat models that were already typed in during pre-registration, or go back to track boat types of late race day entrants — this is just another reason why we emphasize pre-registration.
Pre-registration website for the Halloween Race had a vessel model field, the new website doesn't have that option to add or change what model type the paddler is going to use. May not affect most, but some of the paddlers that already raced that have different models (Pueo, Hurricane, Scorpius, Zephyr) or types (V1, OC-1 or Surfski) may want to change it on the next race(s) depending on the conditions or what they have available for use. I know we can do it when we check in on race day, but that would also slow down the process.
Also, is the Open Division (M18-39/F18-39) age bracket going to stay the same or will they be broken down further (i.e. 18-29 and 30-39) like they were for your earlier races and the Kanaka Ikaika races? Just some thought as some others may be wondering as well since the Long and Short Courses are coming up.
Good races so far, as shown by the huge amount of participants and looking forward to the rest of the PA'A races to come.
A vessel model category was added to the new registration form and should be working.
I hear you with the 30-39 division, but there are a couple reasons why we won't be splitting up the 18-39 bracket to include the 30's. One is, It may be a matter of opinion, but, I've seen 40 year-olds not only win races but also dominate for whole seasons. Besides paddling knowledge, I don't think being over 40 is considered a physical advantage over a fresh 30 or 20 year-old. That is the main reason these ages are all grouped together. Besides this is the second reason, which is we already have way too many divisions and places to hand out prizes too. Here's an idea of the breakdown:
1st, 2nd, and 3rd for both men and women divisions for Open (top three), 18-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+, Jr. Then the same again for SS1, V1, OC2 (men, women, mixed), SUP (Stock and Open), Pdlbrd (Stock and Open), all times 3 places for both men/women. Now try adding a short course and you have to double all of these numbers. Something like 100 different places when accounting for everyone. And even though there are only a few or no entrants for some of those categories/divisions, we still have to plan for them in prizes because we never know who will show up on race day -- yet another reason why pre-registration is key for everyone.
Adding in divisions at this point is the last thing we want to do because coming up with decent prizes for the masses of people in a race is already extremely difficult, and a 30's bracket means about 10 more prizes. The more we have to come up with, the more generic they start getting.
Not that you are suggesting this E7M, but taking out some divisions to make room for a 30's category, inevitably what we'd have to do to add another division in right now, is really not an option. Unless someone is willing to tell the one female OC1 paddler, the one female SS1 paddler, the one 50 year-old SUP paddler, the two OC2 womens' entrants, or the couple scappy 60 year-olds that their divisions are being replaced because there are more 30's entrants, then we will continue with the same divisions.
I thought E7M brought up a legitimate question and I didn't mean to go into too much detail, but hope this will help clarify some of the reasons why we don't add more divisions or break them down any further.. Some people suggested we classify paddlers by weight...uuuhhh, I told them "You get the ladies on the scale to get their weight, place them in a 'category', argue with them that the scale doesn't lie, post it on the internet for everyone to see, and then I'll stand back and watch them tear you a new you-know-what!" No seriously, there are a lot of ways to classify, but we're sticking to what we got for now. Suggestions are always welcomed, but don't expect a lengthy answer from me like this all the time...I just felt like writing.
Thanks for supporting the races. Also, if you know anyone who wants to help out by sponsoring some good prizes, we are always looking for more.
Thanks for the update on the website. Was expecting just a box to type in the model, but having a dropdown list of just about every model made to choose from is even better. (Guess the Fuze riders can choose Other. Ha ha.)
Good clarification about the way the Divisions are setup and why adding more isn't feasible and could end up making it harder to put on decent races. Good to see the V1's getting their own category instead of bunched in with the OC1's as they are different and deserve to grow.
As much as I dont like Oahu, you guys sure know how to turn out for a race! Maybe somebody over there knows something about putting on a race??
#1 Sat, 11/14/2009 - 9:12pm
Hey gang,
Nice race. We collected A LOT of canned goods…don’t know how many pounds yet, but paddlers’ generous donations will be greatly appreciated by some people who are less fortunate on Thanksgiving. Mahalo.
Big mahalo to all paddlers who came out to race and our supporting staff, safety boat drivers, and sponsors. As for conditions, the wind was finicky and chose to turn light southeast when the race started. Not much free rides, we did work. Many paddlers were nudged into the surfline by the wind and swell direction around Diamond Head where an East swell wrap sought out anyone who didn’t take an occasional peak over their shoulder.
Kalei Kahookele, although mistakingly listed as M18-39 division (will be corrected), dominated the growing Junior Division which will soon need to be subdivided by ages. It was good to see some SUPaddlers out there mixing it up, with Robert Stehlik heading the pack. Kekoa Bruhn claimed the V1 title and announced he would be going back to his “traditional” paddling roots after burning his rudder after at the Halloween race and setting out to be the next Superman Aito Champion. Yeah Koa! The women’s division was owned by Jane Mckee who recently chose to retire and pursue paddling full time. OC2 winners and first overall finishers were Billy Pratt and Evan Rhodes — stop sandbagging boys. Overall SurfSki went to Steven Ball and Overall OC1 belonged to Pat Dolan. Congrats. And a big congratulation and Happy Birthday to Uncle Harold Akeo, an inspiration to many, who was accidentally put into the 50-59 division…it didn’t matter, he won that too.
One announcement: Please try to pre-register gang. Every race we get one hundred paddlers trying to register a half hour before race-day registration closes and this causes problems. Not only is it difficult to get you registered, but we aren’t able to turn in a head count for how much food to cook for lunch.
To address the comment regarding the list of boat models, this information is entered in pre-registration by participants. We add this category to support boat builders, but if the vessel model doesn’t show up in the results, it’s because either the paddler didn’t list it or they did not pre-register. Again, crunching 100 paddlers into less than half an hour on race day means we are pressed for time to start the race, and if we don’t include the boat model, we didn’t have the time to type it in. We will not take out the boat models that were already typed in during pre-registration, or go back to track boat types of late race day entrants — this is just another reason why we emphasize pre-registration.
#2 Sun, 11/15/2009 - 7:51am
Manny,
Pre-registration website for the Halloween Race had a vessel model field, the new website doesn't have that option to add or change what model type the paddler is going to use. May not affect most, but some of the paddlers that already raced that have different models (Pueo, Hurricane, Scorpius, Zephyr) or types (V1, OC-1 or Surfski) may want to change it on the next race(s) depending on the conditions or what they have available for use. I know we can do it when we check in on race day, but that would also slow down the process.
Also, is the Open Division (M18-39/F18-39) age bracket going to stay the same or will they be broken down further (i.e. 18-29 and 30-39) like they were for your earlier races and the Kanaka Ikaika races? Just some thought as some others may be wondering as well since the Long and Short Courses are coming up.
Good races so far, as shown by the huge amount of participants and looking forward to the rest of the PA'A races to come.
#3 Sun, 11/15/2009 - 3:59pm
E7M,
A vessel model category was added to the new registration form and should be working.
I hear you with the 30-39 division, but there are a couple reasons why we won't be splitting up the 18-39 bracket to include the 30's. One is, It may be a matter of opinion, but, I've seen 40 year-olds not only win races but also dominate for whole seasons. Besides paddling knowledge, I don't think being over 40 is considered a physical advantage over a fresh 30 or 20 year-old. That is the main reason these ages are all grouped together. Besides this is the second reason, which is we already have way too many divisions and places to hand out prizes too. Here's an idea of the breakdown:
1st, 2nd, and 3rd for both men and women divisions for Open (top three), 18-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+, Jr. Then the same again for SS1, V1, OC2 (men, women, mixed), SUP (Stock and Open), Pdlbrd (Stock and Open), all times 3 places for both men/women. Now try adding a short course and you have to double all of these numbers. Something like 100 different places when accounting for everyone. And even though there are only a few or no entrants for some of those categories/divisions, we still have to plan for them in prizes because we never know who will show up on race day -- yet another reason why pre-registration is key for everyone.
Adding in divisions at this point is the last thing we want to do because coming up with decent prizes for the masses of people in a race is already extremely difficult, and a 30's bracket means about 10 more prizes. The more we have to come up with, the more generic they start getting.
Not that you are suggesting this E7M, but taking out some divisions to make room for a 30's category, inevitably what we'd have to do to add another division in right now, is really not an option. Unless someone is willing to tell the one female OC1 paddler, the one female SS1 paddler, the one 50 year-old SUP paddler, the two OC2 womens' entrants, or the couple scappy 60 year-olds that their divisions are being replaced because there are more 30's entrants, then we will continue with the same divisions.
I thought E7M brought up a legitimate question and I didn't mean to go into too much detail, but hope this will help clarify some of the reasons why we don't add more divisions or break them down any further.. Some people suggested we classify paddlers by weight...uuuhhh, I told them "You get the ladies on the scale to get their weight, place them in a 'category', argue with them that the scale doesn't lie, post it on the internet for everyone to see, and then I'll stand back and watch them tear you a new you-know-what!" No seriously, there are a lot of ways to classify, but we're sticking to what we got for now. Suggestions are always welcomed, but don't expect a lengthy answer from me like this all the time...I just felt like writing.
Thanks for supporting the races. Also, if you know anyone who wants to help out by sponsoring some good prizes, we are always looking for more.
Mahalo,
Manny
#4 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 11:24am
Right on Manny, we all really appreciate all you are doing for the sport!
#5 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 12:01pm
Thanks for the update on the website. Was expecting just a box to type in the model, but having a dropdown list of just about every model made to choose from is even better. (Guess the Fuze riders can choose Other. Ha ha.)
Good clarification about the way the Divisions are setup and why adding more isn't feasible and could end up making it harder to put on decent races. Good to see the V1's getting their own category instead of bunched in with the OC1's as they are different and deserve to grow.
#6 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 4:46pm