Lanikai Canoe Club won its seventh consecutive O‘ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association championship regatta title at Ke‘ehi Lagoon on Sunday afternoon, continuing its recent dominance in local competition.
Of the 46 OHCRA events on Sunday, Lanikai medaled in 37 of them, winning 20. Lanikai Canoe Club head coach Scott Freitas credited his organization's success to his coaching staff, which covers a bevy of age groups and skill levels.
"Our success is predicated behind the coaching staff," Freitas told Aloha State Daily on Sunday. "You're as good as the people that you coach, and you're as good as the people that you have coaching. For me, over the years, I've created a coaching staff where I don't really have to monitor them as much, but like sometimes I'll come up to them, 'OK, you need to work on this.' It just makes my job so much easier as the head coach, to have people to rely on to coach, and I've had the same coaching staff for years, and then I'll start grooming new coaches. And that's the key.
"When your numbers are really big, you got to have the right people. One thing I always talk about is you can never have too many coaches in any sport that you coach. We have a lot of off season workouts that we do, and each division has their own program that they run, and they just stick to it, and it's gonna pay off in the end."
Age divisions as young as 10 and under and as experienced as 70 and up took part in Sunday's all-day event.
Even Freitas himself competed for Lanikai's men's 60 masters team, one of the rare Lanikai crews that did not take home gold. Healani Canoe Club won that race with a time of 3:46.54, edging out Lanikai's time of 3:49.41.
"That race, because it was such a dog fight you'll do a race that takes three and a half to four minutes, and when you're done, you're so exhausted," Freitas, 64, said. "It felt like you did like a 10 or 20 minute race, because you exert so much energy in such a short period of time. You just draw every emotion you can. You gotta wish for it, you gotta want it. Then you have to take it. That's basically pushing and what sprint racing does. It's tough."
Up next for Lanikai is the HCRA State Championship Regatta on Aug. 2 in Maui.
Lanikai has won five consecutive state championships but knows they're going to be up for a formidable challenge, especially as a road crew.
"Through the last 20 years of canoe paddling, it's pretty much been us and Maui and Maui is gonna really be up for this after the Maui wildfires. They're gonna have all the emotion on their side," Freitas said. "Years back, we were the hunters. Now we're the hunted after being five-time defending state champions, everybody's gonna come for us. We have to realize that the target is on our back. We just got to hold it off as long as we can. Streaks are meant to come to an end, right? Everything gets broken. I just hope that we can hold on to win it again. Maui is like the hardest place to win."
Dozens of teams, their families and their supporters made up for the thousands gathered at Ke‘ehi on Sunday, serving as another reminder of why many compete in the first place.
"This is our state sport, and more people need to recognize it that way. Canoe paddling originated in Hawai‘i, right? It's the state sport," Freitas said. "My dad, all his brothers, they paddled in the in the olden days of the ’50s for Waikīkī Surf Club, and I just try to keep the tradition on. Then I have my kids following in my footsteps, my grandkids. My granddaughter just started paddling last year. The generations of canoe paddlers just taking care and being part of the culture, it really means a lot to a lot of the Hawaiian people."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
