Holo Niu - Kent Island, Maryland

17 May 2008 Kent Island Maryland: where the Annapolis Bay bridge touches down on the far side of that structure is the heart of paddling Aloha on the eastern seaboard.
The Kent Island Yacht club is a dichotomy of two distinctly different groups of boat lovers. The Captain's cap/Topsider/white pant wearing Yachtsmen and women of KIYC have embraced their somewhat slower moving, Hawaiian shirt/board-short/slippah clad kin of the Kent Island Outrigger Canoe Club, with true Aloha spirit. You have a wonderful mix found nowhere else that I know of. The lawn outside the Yacht Club looks just like the banks of the Ala Wai canal in Honolulu with 6-person (OC-6) canoes rigged and stacked, ready to go as soon as the crew slides them into the cool waters of the Chesapeake. This place is so cool, our Canadian paddling ohana drive the 15 hours from Toronto just for these race weekends! We are going to return the gesture and drive the SUPER fleet to Toronto for their July 4th weekend event to be held on Lake Ontario.

We pine for our weekends in Kent Island almost as much as our yearly treks to the paddling mecca of Hawaii! This year we brought the SUPER series boards and raced.
We stayed true to our word by working the wind and wave for a fun downwind 3 mile leg to the narrows at Kent Island but we had to finish through the narrows fighting the current and the same wind that was so helpful earlier. All six SUPER racers were on identical 12'6" Jimmy Lewis Distance boards so it was up to the paddlers, not the equipment, to decide the outcome of the event. The downwind leg kept all of us close for about the first mile, until we cleared the lee of the island and then the "surfers" jumped on the wind bumps and the gap opened. Two of us, Lang and myself, were with-in a boards length of each other going in to the narrows. Lang lives and paddles here and his knowledge of the current and eddies through the narrows put him in the lead as we came to the final slog around the spit that the Yacht Club sits on. At this point I must add some clarifying information: Lang competed in that morning's 8 mile single person outrigger (OC-1) race just before we kicked off the SUPER race...in fact all but one other SUPER paddler raced in the outrigger race! Now Lang is leading me into the final stretch and I was relatively fresh (except for some pre-race exercising the night before).
He stumbled around the last corner and I tested the sprint speed of the JL.
With the fact that he had two races under his belt it's hard to be satisfied with the slim 10 second win. Must train harder.
My wife, Anne, continues to dominate the women's SUPER Series through a solo effort.
We would love to see some more wahines out on the JLs.

The Kent Island Outrigger Canoe Club had trophies, grinds and BEER for everyone.
Revision Hellflys were handed out to all the paddlers for their efforts.
These kick-ass sun glasses were purpose built for our men and women war-fighters but they look great and the lenses are on par with the "foofy-stuff" that you would pay a lot more for.
Thank these same men and women that have volunteered to defend our great nation this Memorial Day weekend...every weekend for that matter.

The race finishers as follows:
Name Time
Bill Gassett 45:05
Lang King 45:15
Jeff Firkin 49:00
Rusty McLain 52:43
Chris Rababy 55:56
Anne Gassett 56:20

We have some local events scheduled around the Virginia Beach area through June and then on to Toronto for the next race.
Be cool and paddle hard!

Aloha,
Dukey