News and Announcements

Kai 'Opua News Update - the Tsunami and Upcoming Season

Were excited to get going with 2011 six-man season here at Kai Opua. Most paddlers in Hawaii are transitioning from the OC1 season to six-man paddling with their respective clubs. Kai Opua had quite a few of youth paddlers do well in the high school season paddling for competing for Kealakehe High School.

We were ready to commence with our keiki and adult paddling schedule when the recent tsunami put the brakes on everything for a week or two. Thankfully, once we moved our canoes to high ground in the middle of the night on March 10th from our rickety old storage shed, we then had our beautiful new halau to move our canoes back into. Theyve been there getting some TLC while the area around our practice site, Kamakahonu, is put back together.

The King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel has done an amazing job of getting back on its feet in record time. When you arrive here for our Queen Liliuokalani Races in September, you wont see any evidence of the water doing any damage to the hotel.

Its hard to feel sorry for ourselves, loosing a little bit of time for the inconvenience of our practice site be unusable for a week. Because truly, our hearts go out to our paddling ohana in Japan...so many of our wonderful friends that have come to Kona to race at Queen Liliuokalani. Please know you are in our prayers, we hope you are safe, and we anxiously await your return to Kona.

For now we have much training and racing to do. But our preparations for the 40th Annual Queen Liliuokalani Outrigger Canoe Races have been underway for months. We expect a large turnout for this significant anniversary. So enjoy looking around this beautiful website, and enjoy our efficient on-line registration.

A hui ho!

← Return to News Listing