I respect your devotion to church. It sounds like a great place and great time with those that you love. It seems to me that life boils down to choices and priorities. It sounds to me that you have enjoyed church for a good part of your life and now are enjoying paddling. I believe that you have made the choice to purchase a new canoe and have made it your desire to compete, so which is the prioroty? competeing or just paddling for recreation? Church will always be there and the season is only for so long. In the end you will make the right decision for yourself. Let us respect the fact that these people have made time (organized) to have a season and that they have created balance in their lives to make this time for people to compete. Some people have made the sacarafices from work, families and school to be there to provide for you. Please do not use this forum to advocate for church or use it as a reason that you will not be there. Compete or not compete?

go to your race then go to church. if church is an all day thing you could race and head back to chruch after. not everyone spends all day every sunday at the races. after all, the races are all pretty much less than 10 minutes long.

I've had the same problem ever since I started paddling. I tried a compromise by agreeing to race every other Sunday. After a season of doing that, I just decided not to compromise my faith for paddling and just quit regattas altogether.
Trying to attend religious committments and regatta is more difficult than it seems. One's ability to do both really depends on the time of the race and when and where one's services are being held.
I remember one particular race which was held at Haleiwa. My race was scheduled to beheld in the mid to late afternoon. But because things were running faster than anticipated, I was called by my teamates to be at the race in the early afternoon. I got out of church, ripped down the freeway at 80mph, pulled to the side of the road in front of the beach to let another paddler park my vehicle while I tore down the beach, and hopped into a canoe just as the race was about to begin. It was a crazy moment that I decided never to repeat in the future.

This probably wouldn't work as well on Oahu, but I know on Kaua'i they changed races to start at noon on sunday... so if there's an early morning church service, people might still make the race. But I think they did it to let the wind pick up too. 😉

There is no way that Kanaka Ikaika can hold races to accomodate everybody....we all have a lot of commitments to get to, especially since we work during the week and we try to get a lot of other things accomplished on the weekends....
One suggestion to eckhart is maybe his family could meet you at the end of the race then you can spend the rest of the day with them. Or does your church only have one service, if it does go to another time or some kind of fellowship during the week....Seems like if you're serious about racing then you need to make some kind of sacrifice.

Eckhart, I would be cautious about merging culture and religion into one entity, likewise I would also be cautious about saying that for all Christians Sunday morning is the most important weekly gathering.
Firstly, culture and religion are two different things; religion is something that came long after a distinct culture was formed.
Secondly, Russian Orthodox is part of Christianity but Sunday is no different from any other day, and nor are you obliged to attend regular church service.
Additionally, a Muslim could make a similar argument saying, that all regattas should be postponed until the end of fasting of Ramadan. If they are not, then for their status, Muslims cannot participate in the regattas during Ramadan. Thus regattas are discriminatory against Muslims.
We live in a society where respect for another human beings religion, culture, and race are fundamental values of individuality and individuals freedoms. Our lives consist of choices that we juggle with everyday. Competitive outrigger paddling is one of the most demanding sports; therefore one should accept that sacrifices must be made, either in training, in racing, and/or in personal life.
Lastly, Hawaiian culture is traditionally polytheistic and an outrigger is an important symbol to Hawaiian culture. Therefore, Please respect others peoples culture and traditions.

Okay people let's not turn this into something too heated....
Eckhart....please understand that there are a lot of devoted christians who paddle on sunday mornings. Do you think New Hope goes to regattas or distance races ONLY after they attend a morning service. I don't think so- there is always a way to make time for what is important to you. If you don't think so then maybe you shouldn't race this year till you decide to make sacrifices somewhere.

I'll let it drop, but your original main issue is still a mystery to me. Since when is Christianity culturally Hawaiian? If anything, Christianity, and ensuing colonization, were partially responsible for destroying Hawaiian culture. I do not see why you advocate changing race dates in the name of "cultural respect."

i think what eckhart is saying is that we've respected the tradition of hawaiian canoe racing. and if it were possible to maybe respect other traditions also and see if races could be held on saturdays? and eckhart i've seen New Hope which i think is a christian church with three different crews at 6 man long distance races on a sunday racing. so it can't be that bad to miss a few sundays. And you said you go to church not only for yourself but to see your family be happy. so in turn can't they miss church a few times to come see you be happy. not saying church doesn't make you happy.

do I favor my family and go to church and watch them having a good time.

New Hope has Saturday night services.