Hawaiian Canoe Club

Archived from MauiNews.com

Hawaiian Canoe Club celebrates 50 years of growth, in and out of the water

By KEKOA ENOMOTO, Staff Writer |POSTED: July 25, 2010

KAHULUI – Fifty years ago, a Central Maui police officer and his wife spearheaded the start of Hawaiian Canoe Club at Kahului Harbor to get youngsters off the streets and into Hawaiian outrigger canoes.

“All these kids heard about it,” Joan Lake Farren, daughter of founders John and Kealoha Lake, said by phone last week from her home in Las Vegas. “It started out with 10 kids. Pretty soon it just kept growing.”

Charter ohana included the Alau, Anakalea, Kailihiwa, Kawaakoa and Lai families.

Farren said her dad, a police lieutenant, also collaborated with members of the Marciel, Uwekoolani, Wilmington and other families to kokua, or support, other canoe clubs on Maui.

“Four guys from Lahaina, Kahului and Kihei came to my father,” she recounted. “They all sat down and worked together to expand into different clubs. . . . We helped one another because we were close.”

The Maui island paddling community “grew into what it is today. I am so happy all the members are going with their canoe clubs,” she said.

Kealoha Lake helped with the younger children, logged Hawaiian Canoe Club members’ names and assiduously recorded the club’s history through 1980.

“She was given the title of First Lady of Canoe Clubs on Maui,” said Miriam Lake, also a daughter of the co-founders.

Veteran head coach Diane St. Sure Ho said the late 1970s saw the club “making a commitment to success in all aspects” and ascending “from last in the Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association in 1979 to first in 1984.”

She indicated that the club has benefited from a tradition of great coaches, who “have been with us for long periods of time and/or come through the program; so they’re always on the same page.”

“They have bought into the big picture of the club, the needs of club. They come to weekly meetings and understand what we’re doing. They make decisions based on what the club needs and not necessarily on what a crew needs,” she said.

They are “open to criticism and growth, that’s important. . . . I think the strength of Hawaiian Canoe Club coaching is a lack of egos and a willingness to put our club first. That’s the biggest difference I see from other groups,” Ho said about the selflessness of the coaches. Their ranks include names like JB Guard, Guy Helm, Ka’uhane Lu’uwai, Johnny McCandless, Dane Ward and new-generation coaches Kekupa’a Nae’ole and Kaikaika Nance.

Lu’uwai added that the last-to-first arc was also a result of the continuity of club membership from the keiki to adult ranks.

“We were a really small, close-knit club. When the kids started becoming adults, that’s when our club really started getting stronger and better,” said Lu’uwai, who’s coached club youth to 15 keiki (youth) division state championships, including six straight, in 26 years as keiki coach.

“That was the big turnaround in winning the state championship, I believe, when most of our kids became adults. . . . I never thought we would ever win it. We were second, third, fourth for years and years. All of a sudden, it started with the men, then our women, and then here we go nine state championships later. I feel really good about that,” he said.

Nevertheless, Lu’uwai said one of his greatest coaching achievements was guiding club keiki as young as 10 years old in a ka’apuni, or circumnavigation, of Molokai last weekend to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary as part of a summerlong project. They paddled 114 miles in 20 hours over three days, from D.T. Fleming Beach at Kapalua, around Halawa to Hale O Lono, and back to Hanakaoo Beach at Kaanapali, he said.

He recalled “paddling past Pelekunu with waterfalls and mountains. . . .The ocean was rough as a skunk out there. Eight kids were throwing up at one time. . . . They lost fluids, they lost food, but they were out there cranking. It was a long trip.”

The ka’apuni is a microcosm of the club’s legacy of youth development, water sports and cultural context.

“My focus has never changed. It’s always been about our kids, to make them good people; to teach good ethics, good morals, Hawaiian culture and, of course, to paddle good,” Lu’uwai said. “To make good people more than good paddlers, but they became good paddlers too.”

In the tradition of the club founders, a formerly single mother with six children helped start, and for many years ran, Hawaiian Canoe Club’s keiki programs to fill a community need. Mary Akiona – former longtime executive director at Hawaiian and a part-time auditor, who now serves as board treasurer – looks to the club Kamali’i, or youth, Program to foster the next generation in her own family.

“I want to bring my grandson from Oahu to Maui, to come next summer and paddle. It’s an awesome program.”

Three of her own children: “Kimo, Dorothy, Richard – they all went through the program, and all were junior leaders in the program. . . . They all had this opportunity.”

Hawaiian Canoe Club incorporated in 1992 as the nonprofit Kamali’i Inc., and five-year club President Dave Ward called the club’s Kamali’i Program “so exceptional. I don’t think there’s anything like it nationally that offers the opportunities with this leadership program.”

“They come through, and each kid has responsibility as they get older, and the older ones lead the younger kids down the line. So the older kids have a summer job, and there are classes to learn how to write a resume, to interview with a company – all are taught and performed.”

Farren, who arrives Friday from Vegas for the 50th-anniversary festivities, noted, “There’s so many kids. My father would be astounded at the interest of the kids, the discipline. There’s character in it as well as bodybuilding, working together and growing.

“Oh Dad, you started more than you thought.”

* Kekoa Enomoto can be reached at kekoa@mauinews.com. She is a member of Hawaiian Canoe Club.

The late Kealoha and John Matthew Lake are credited with having founded Hawaiian Canoe Club in 1960.

Fact Box

HAWAIIAN CANOE CLUB 50TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS

* HALE BLESSING: of a 50-by-30-foot traditional Hawaiian hale, or structure, 5 p.m. Friday, Hoaloha Park, Kahului; free to the public. Hale to be used as a site for community and cultural events and activities, such as hula instruction.

* CULTURAL WORKSHOPS: Celebration of Canoe Culture from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Hawaiian Canoe Club hale, Hoaloha Park, Kahului; free to the public.Cultural practitioners Ray Bumatay and Kalei Tsuha Nu’uhiwa lead workshops and demonstrations in canoe building, cord-making, rigging techniques, and Polynesian seafaring and navigation.

* LUAU CELEBRATION: 50th Anniversary Luau 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Maui Tropical Plantation; tickets $40, children under 12 free. Open to “the whole community, not only Hawaiian Canoe Club paddlers (present and past), but all paddlers.” No-host bar 5 p.m., dinner 6 p.m., show 6:30 p.m. Entertainment by Halau Hula Ka Malama Mahilani, under the direction of kumu hula Pueo Pata; halau Na Hanona Kulike ‘O Pi’ilani, led by na kumu hula Sissy Lake-Farm and Kapono’ai Molitau; and Hawaiian Canoe Club keiki. Also, silent auction and club logo wear for sale. For tickets, call 893-2124.

HCC will hold a Kalua Pig Sale on Saturday, May 22 from 9:00am to 1:00pm.

Tickets are available at the HCC office at Kahului Harbor or through HCC members.  HCC is asking for a $7 donation for a 1 lbs bowl.

All proceeds of the HCC Kalua Pig Sale will go to cover the cost of resotring the club’s koa canoes Kokololio & Pahili Kiu.  The canoes are being resotre by master woodwoker Pete Sayer of Hana.  The koa canoes will be ready for the 2010 Regatta Season and HCC’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

The mission of HCC is to perpetuate and preserve the art of Hawaiian canoe paddling by providing an environment rooted in traditional Hawaiian values that promote personal growth, character development, and achievement in physical fitness.

MAHALO to all the sponsors & teams!

Sponsors

Wailea Realty

Hawaii Fueling Network

Mancini Welch & Geiger

Maui Oil Company

Pacific Energy Management

Kent & Polli Smith Foundation

Paragon Sailing Charters

Skyline Eco-Adventures

Teams

Maui CrossFit Extreme (Open division champs)

Pa’ia Fishmarket

The Jesters

Slackheads (Novice division champs)

Mama’s Fish House (best team uniforms)

Hawaiian Canoe Club will hold its Annual General Membership Meeting on Monday, May 17, at 5:00pm.  All current and past members are invited to the HCC’s hale to participate in the meeting.

The agenda includes introduction of the coaching staff, the summer calendar, voting in new board members, and plans related to the 50th Anniversary Luau on July 31. HCC handbooks will also be distributed.

The mission of Hawaiian Canoe Club is to perpetuate and preserve the art of Hawaiian canoe paddling by providing an environment rooted in traditional Hawaiian values that promotes personal growth , character development, and achievement in physical fitness.

2010 marks the 50th Anniversary of Hawaiian Canoe Club, as our part in contributing to the success of Hawaiian Canoe Club and the Na Ho’ilina programs, we will begin early season practice to start the long process of polishing our technique and blending as a crew.

The HCC Open Men’s division will begin non-mandatory practice every Tuesday at 5:30pm.  All men between 19 and 49 years old are welcome!

We especially would like to invite any of you who have paddled with HCC in past years and would like to come out and celebrate the 50th Anniversary by getting in the canoe and paddling again.

Please use the comment form below to post your thoughts on pre-season training and cross training days.

The next Traditional Hale work day is Saturday, December 5, from 9:00am-1:00pm. We will be preparing 1,000 loulu leaves and sticks for the roof thatching. Lunch will be provided. E hele mai!

The Traditional Hale was made possible through support from the Cooke Foundation, Group 70 Foundation, A&B Properties, the County of Maui, Mark Mastsuda of Otomo Engineering, and Doug Gomes of Engineering Dynamics Corporation.

To learn more about the Traditional Hale or HCC programs please call 893-2124.

Hawaiian Canoe Club is constructing a Traditional Hawaiian Hale adjacent to our current hale at Kahului Harbor, Maui.  Mahalo to all who  came out to construct the ‘oloke’a on Satuday October 18. We hope you walked away with a great sense of completion and pride in contributing to this very important part of hale building.

The Traditional Hale was made possible through grants from the Cooke Foundation, Group 70 Foundation, Mark Mastsuda of Otomo Engineering, and Doug Gomes of Engineering Dynamics Corporation.

To learn more about the Traditional Hale or HCC programs please call 893-2124.

A very special SATURDAY NIGHT-August 15, 2009 for Hawaiian Canoe Club!

End of SUMMER Bash for Hawaiian Canoe Club!

6 Great films-A WORLD PREMIERE, Live Music, Ono Food Booths, Paddlers’ and real wholesome fun for the entire family. Come to Welcome back all our Maui paddlers from the State Championships in Hilo!

A very special fundraiser for Hawaiian Canoe Club!
Please support the club!

Buy your tickets now! Call 893-2124

HALF of all pre sold tickets will be donated directly to Hawaiian Canoe Club!!

Live Music with Multi Na Hoku Hanohano Awards and Hawaii Music Award winner Brother Noland!

**MOVIES**

Kung Fu Panda
Nominated for an Academy Award for best Animation of the Year!
Animated Feature
Voices by; Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie

Children of the long Canoes
A unique history of Hawaii
A film by Albert and Trudy Kallis
An incredible story of the first Hawaiians as seen through the eyes of artists-historian Herb Kawainui Kane
A masterpiece!

World Premiere!
A Voyage to Lana’i with Hawaiian Canoe Club
A glimpse of a journey this summer with 3 Wa’a (canoes) paddled by the keiki of the Hawaiian Canoe Club to experience an adventure on the ocean with Hawaiian culture, and memories of a lifetime.
Filmed with the help of Hawaiian canoe club keiki

Wa’a Ho’olaule’a (Festival of canoes)
A film by Kenneth K. Martinez Burgmaier
A journey of Master Canoe carvers from Tahiti, New Zealand, Hawai’i, Native Americans, Marshall Islands, Tonga, Cook Islands, Maui’s Surf Board Shaper Ole and Hale and Hawaiian master carvers from the International Festival of Canoes. Winner of Seven Film Awards!

Encore Maui Premiere !
Ke Ka’apuni Ho’onui ‘Ike
Fire March of Awareness
The community wide march had started at midnight Feb. 20, 2009 at Lahaina, traversed coastal roads clockwise around island, and stopped intermittently to honor ohana (families) of Maui’s 12 Moku, or districts:
Lahaina, Kaanapali, Wailuku, Hamakuapoko, Hamakualoa, Koolau, Hana, Kipahulu, Kaupo, Kahikinui, Honuaula and Kula. The marcher’s have undertaken a 193-mile torch-lit journey that started and will end at Moku’ula, the ancient Capital of the Kingdom of Hawai’i. This is part of their journey was on the east side of Maui in the Kipahulu and Kaupo Moku.

Turtle and the Shark
Animated Short from Hawai’i with local Hana ties!
The Turtle and the Shark is one of the most popular Samoan legends. It tells the story of a man and a woman who are deeply in love. Unfortunately, the man is chosen to be the next meal to the cannibal King Malietofaiga. To avoid this horrible fate, they flee to another island. However, fearing their act of disobedience would bring dishonor on their families, they willingly gave up their lives at the cliffs of Vaitogi. The gods had mercy on them and transformed them into a turtle and a shark to live together, forever.

FILMS, Live Music, fun, Aloha and travel back in time Hawaiian style for only $5.00 per person-walk ins ! As many adults you can get in a vehicle only $20.00? YES!
And Keiki under 12 are FREE! Yes, a true aloha value for our Maui community! Tickets at the GATE. $40 VIP Tickets first four rows!

Delicious Food booths from award winning Serpico’s Italian restaurant, Patti Cakes Bakery and fundraiser booths for community organizations, Schools, Clubs and Canoe Clubs.

Buy your tickets TODAY!!!

Call 893-2124 or email info@hawaiiancanoeclub.org

For decades we have honored Maui’s legendary outrigger coach and paddler Dutchy Kino in this much anticipated long distance canoe race.

This year the all-new race course begins with women’s crews taking off from Makena Landing and finishing at Ka Lae Pohaku. Then it’s the men’s crews turn to race up the coast to Haycraft, turning on buoy to surf downwind and finishing at Makena Landing.
We hope to see you this Saturday, August 8th to kick off the distance season.

Wahine:

• Makena Landing
• 7:00am Registration
• 8:00am Race Start

Kane:

• Ka Lae Pohaku
• 9:00am Registration
• 10:30am Race Start

Divisions:

• UNDER 18
• NOVICE
• OPEN
• MASTER 40
• SENIOR MASTER 50
• GOLDEN MASTER 55
• MIXED OPEN (Women’s course only)

Lunch will be served at Makena Landing at 1:00pm

Questions, call Aaron: 808.268.9657

Download entry form:

Download event poster:

Mahalo to everyone for making Aha Aina such a success!

Aloha