Puna Canoe Club! Hawaii's AAA 2009 Champions...

Puna Canoe Club has announced its practice/work schedule for the upcoming 2010 season.

It includes:

* Feb. 27-28: Canoe repair and maintenance.

* March 1: Conditioning program for youth groups, with boys practice from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; and girls from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

* March 3: General membership meeting, 4:30 p.m. at Hilo Bayfront halau.

* March 15: Race practice starts for youth groups.

* March 20: Novice B men and Novice B women practice, 5 p.m.

* April 5: Men/women practice, 5 p.m.

For additional information, call head coach Afa Tuaolo at 965-7614 or youth coach Joe Kalima at 895-0430.

I bet that paddle fits your hand! Come meet with some of the paddlers and GET IN THE WATER!


P.S. The picture is of the winning Novice B Womens crew from 2009, the short strawberry blond is me :)

Outrigger Canoe Club Quilt...

Aunty Maile helped make this quilt many years ago...it is very very cool! Every "Patch" is the design from one clubs Logo, and they where taken from each clubs cotton jerseys so the quilt is nice and soft. You can see my clubs patch, it is on the top row second from the left (the green one). It was hanging from the judges stand during our Moku O Hawaii regatta on July 18th, this regatta was the Aunty Maile Championship for which teams are the Big Island Champs. And I am very stoked because my crew won Gold in our race and helped the club bring in enough points to rank second in the regatta! Which meant we qualified for the State Championship race being held right here in Hilo Bay on August 1st! This is going to be sooo fun!

Outrigger Canoe Paddling On the Big Island of Hawaii!

Isn't it gorgeous, Koa Canoes are incredibly beautiful and horribly expensive, we just don't have Koa trees big enough anymore...We sure enjoy this one!

This picture is from Saturday May 16th, I recently joined Puna Canoe Club and this was not only my first race but the first race of the season! It was held in beautiful Kona Bay and the Dolphins & Honu (Sea Turtles) came to watch! And some seemed to want to race with us as they came right in close, actually the whole pod was between the finish line and the judges booth for quite awhile...sooo cool!

This picture is of part of the club putting the canoe into the protected inlet before taking it out to the open water of Kona Bay. No the whole club isn't wahines, we have plenty kane as well (could use more though, so if you like to paddle come down to Hilo Bay Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday at 3:00-3:30 and talk to a coach!).

This was the Novice beginner womens first race ever and we came in 6th out of 12, someone said that we were about 2 seconds behind the winner! Are we ever stoked! And Saturday the 23rd is our next race! So if anyone is interested come on down to the Kona Pier about 8:00 Saturday AM and watch the races, plenty good fun!

Bait under the bridge?

The other day I was out on Coconut Island with a friend (Larkin Hathaway) and we were trying to get some great pictures of Hilo Town from across the bay (Our new web site needs a great front page!), what we got instead was pictures of these cute little fish! I have no idea what they are but the local fishermen call them "bait", they were clustered under the bridge to the island in the shallower water to either end and they must have numbered in the millions! It looked & moved just like a bait ball you see in the deeper ocean but the fish were just tiny! The first shot is from looking over the bridge rail, the white is the glare of the edge of the bridge.

It was fascinating to watch this group of fish wheel & turn in concert, I could have watched them for hours and I really really wanted to get in the water, but work was calling so we had to head in. Next time I am going in board shorts and tucking my flippers in the car!

Credit for these photos goes to Larkin Hathaway!

Now, how did this Kayak get here?

No it wasn't a Tsunami or Hurricane Ike... I came into work the other morning to find a lovely yellow Kayak occupying the teeny tiny space between my building and the neighboring one (It's barely big enough to walk into). My office is the windows at the top of the screen to the left...the beigey pink building (official name is the Chock Building as it is owned by the Chock family).

It just looked so incongruous next to a busy street with cars, etc... (even though we are just about a block up from the Pacific Ocean/Hilo Bay) but the colors were so striking...I believe the owner works in the Blue building and stored it here for safekeeping until after work...and it was a beautiful day, perfect to get in/on/around the water!

The Serpent bridge over Wailoa pond...

The Serpent bridge over lovely Wailoa pond near downtown Hilo, people come and picnic, fish and play here...this pretty little pond is actually a brackish water inlet of the Hilo Bay, and is home to numerous relocated ducks and geese as well as being a local nursery for many aquatic varieties...a great place to spend a afternoon!