BTW

by the way... Le Jardin Bulldogs kayaking kicks butt. I guess Giulia did ok in ILH kayaking too, you know, undefeated and all that. All of our HCKT gang did great, actually. No big suprise there. Champs this weekend was fun, looking forward to next year!
Kati

check the vitals

OK. So, stoked about this week coming up - I got invited to a training camp up at Chula Vista, yes, the same place Giulia has gotten to train at twice, not that I'm counting or anything. We're having a week-long spill-your-guts and eat-like-a-pig camp, and I GET TO GO. FINALLY. yay :-D !! I'm not sure what exactly we're going to do, but I have a feeling it'll involve gym and running... maybe even some paddling! I'll let you know when I get there, and I'll try to coerce Giulia into giving the dirt on what her camp (a few weeks ago) was like. Here we go!
Kati

Estrogen

As a follow-up to Giulia's post...
We do indeed have enough girls now to fill a K4 - more than enough, actually, it's fantastic! Two of the new girls, Leilani and Christina (both from Punahou School, where I went, where Barack Obama went, and which, incidentally, is WAY cooler than Iolani (where Giulia goes, hehe)) paddled with us on Thursday. If Rachel Fujita (Giulia's usual K2 partner) had been there, it would have been a real live Jr K4. Crazy, but true!
Regarding Lanikai's men, I have to make something of an exception to my usual prejudice and must say that I am behind them all the way. I'm so excited for these guys, I've been training with them on Mondays, and there is some SERIOUS testosterone on the water...! Their Molokai crossing is in exactly one week, I'll be cheering :-).
More Estrogen info: we've been so fortunate the past couple weeks to be triple teamed by Aussies - not only our own coach Robyn Singh, but Shelly Oats-Wilder and Guy Wilder too! Shelly has gone out with us K2, and has such a nice stroke to follow. She's helped me with great technique advice, given me some really useful things to think about, and we're all really thankful for the time she's put in with us. Congratulations to Shelley for WINNING the women's channel crossing, Na Wahine O Ke Kai, last week with Team Bradley; good luck to Guy in the men's crossing, Molokai Hoe, next week!!
Giulia and I are going to work with the C1 today, wish us luck, and thanks for checking in!
-Kati

School Division Takes Over

We're two weeks in to the ILH races and the HCKT team (yes, that's redundant, but it sounds better) has momentarily split into our various school teams. Kati has sucked Pat AND Brandon in to the Le Jardin coaching staff and left little old me cold and alone over at Iolani. Besides one or two unfaithfuls, everyone in high school from HCKT is rocking the various ILH divisions. Ryan's in the last stages of prep for the Molokai crossing with Pat and the kick-ass Lanikai men (you can't deny it, Kati) before heading off to the Olympic Training Center, Chula Vista. The guy just doesn't stop!

Oh! Oh! Incredible news! We have GIRLS coming to morning practice. As in plural! We have enough to have an all-junior K4 now, versus the motley crew juvie-junior-senior-master mix from nationals. Hooray for estrogen balancing out testosterone!
-Giulia

Moscow wow

OK, so sorry about the silly name, but this is a real "WOW." For those of you who know our little Ryan Dolan (hehe), and even those of you who don't, I have just heard the results of his races in the Pre-World (yes...World) Junior Championships in Moscow, Russia. With less than a year's experience in a K1, Ryan came away with 2nd in his 500m and 4th in his 1000m races!!!!! A Kailua boy on Lanikai's Sr men's team, this was his first kayak regatta outside of North America - it seems like he handled it pretty well... ;-) If you want to look for results online, best of luck, cause I haven't been able to sniff out much of anything yet, but I'll post more info on his race when I hear it!
YAY RYAN!!!!
Kati

A New Focus

So, I am not neglecting this blog; I just got the password. Now, Kati's already told most of the stories of the summer (except we got a vanfull of boys to sing 'I kissed a girl' on our way home from dinner at nationals--almost as good as the whole busload of them at Placid), leaving me with little to do. Instead, let's look ahead.

Besides last weekend when Kati got sucked into the Duke Race (distance six-man), we have been transitioning over to the ILH surfski season starting as soon as everyone's back in school. Senior boys Pat and Brandon offered Kati to go for an afternoon stretch in the ski (which I later learned meant she had invited herself), who then invited me. We cruised out to Mokulea Rock (known better as Bird Shit) and surfed back, left behind promptly by the uncontainably fast boys. Besides getting lost in failing light since neither Kati nor I had landmarked the right-of-way we took to the beach, it wasn't a bad first ocean run (for me).

We've also gone out on a ski surf session just off of Kati's house and done our own, separate outings (mine mostly consist of hikes and beach romps with the dog--no boat involved). It's good to be on vacation!
-Giulia

Nationals

Back home from nationals in Oklahoma, Giulia is continuing the college search in Washington - she's looking at UW and their rowing program! All of HCKT had a great regatta, lots of good racing, medals, personal bests. My mom raced too, she basically swept up in the masters division, AND she raced C4, having never paddled a canoe without an ama (outrigger) before! I am so proud of and happy for her. We also raced K2 500meters together, it was a really cool experience. Guilia and I came away with 3rd in C2, and we're looking forward to next time, because even with me only paddling about half of the whole 500 (I was steering outrigger-style - haven't quite gotten the canoe J-stroke steering yet!), the 2nd place US team only finished 5 seconds ahead! This race was a good indicator of how far we've both come since we started K1, even how far we've come since the Lake Placid camp and regatta. I see even more clearly what I need and want to do to continue to improve, and it's really exciting. And challenging, 'cause school starts again in 2 WEEKS! eek! Nah, but it should be a good semester. Organic Chem and Journalism, yummy.
-Kati

CHULA!

Well, we made it here to the OTC in Chula Vista!! 6am we had our very first Dragon boat practice (paddling pell-mell with about 1.5 square feet per person, but we moved pretty fast) in Mission Bay, San Diego; then onto Chula Vista, thanks to Susanne for driving us! We (literally) screeched into the parking lot and raced down to the dock just in time to catch the girls going to warm up. Carrie Johnson, the only female on the US Olympic team for canoe and kayak, Emily Wright (check out her blog, "The Wright's Tuff" - try googling it - the address is different than the name...), Emily Mickle, Jen Burke, and Sophia from Sweden, who is one of the top 10 K1 women paddlers in the world. Assan, from Senegal was training also. What a group to watch! Giulia and I got to go on the coaches boat with Nathan Luce, one of the coolest coaches, in my humble opinion :-) . He visited Oahu for a while last year and came by for a day as a guest coach for Le Jardin Academy's ILH kayak team, we were so happy to have him work with the paddlers (I was assistant coach, Mom (Kathy) is the head coach).
Back to here and now, though... lucky us, we're going on the water with the group here in a few hours! We're going on a K2, which is fortunate because we're racing it at nationals and we've never paddled K2 before. This atmosphere is great - we only just got here, but it has a really good feel - how amazing to be able to train with so many talented, driven athletes! (Plus, there's lots of good food)
Yesterday we checked out UCSD (Giulia is going to be a senior at Iolani this year: the college search is ON!). Some cool pieces of info: if you are invited to train here at the OTC, and want to go to school nearby, you will be considered a California resident, so lower tuition. Also, athletes can qualify to go to school at UCSD part time by petitioning their training as a part-time job. There is a carpool system so the athletes drive in together for schools farther away (like UCSD: approx 45 min drive), but there is also a community college about 10 minutes away.
This is so much fun :-D
Kati

P.S. Giulia says she'll write soon.

Some Pictures from Trials in Oklahoma City

Phase III

So we're coming up on Phase III of this year's paddling-travels (I:Olympic/Pan-Am Trials, II: Lake Placid Camp and regattas), off to Long Beach, CA, tomorrow! Dragon boat Nationals, and along the way, paddling in some pretty cool places - we're going up to the OTC in Chula Vista to visit friends and get on the water with some stellar athletes (YAY!!) and over to Newport Aquatics where we'll hopefully meet up with Billy Whitford. If you don't know him, Uncle Billy is a great waterman who moved up to California from Hawaii a few years back. He is one of the reasons HCKT's athletes have done so well in the past: the team won several National Champs with him as head coach. Although Uncle Billy isn't coaching here anymore, we've still been really fortunate in our coaches - Robyn, Blane and Pat!
We went out on the C1 yesterday, it was a blast. Pictures to come soon, we hope, which you'll want to see: it's pretty hilarious. This was our fourth time on the water working on the C1 in Kailua (Uncle Pete Roney has been nice enough to let us keep the canoe at his house), and while we've had the balance thing down ok, the issue of steering is a little tricky. See, there's no rudder, you're paddling on bent-knee, and you are NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE SIDES (crazy). Who, we asked ourselves, came up with this sport?!?!
Here's the good news: breakthrough in the steering challenge, so we can actually go forward rather than around and around in circles. Phew!
Oahu Champs today, yeehaw!
Kati

Inaugural

Inaugural blog. My goodness, I never thought I would have a blog, but I'm actually really excited about this. With Trials done, Lake Placid camp and regatta over, the six-man season winding down and two national competitions coming up, I'm pretty jazzed to be able to share the experience with you all!
Although different from what I expected, the LP camp taught me some great things: I got to see how it's "really done," got in race time (so helpful), and I met some amazing people, like the charming and talented Emily Wright, who hosted me for a few days and was the inspiration for this very blog. Technique, fitness, race strategy, WARM UP strategy, all worked on. Races improved, times went down, good stuff! Giulia was holding her own up with all the other Jr.s, showing what she's made of. I found out the hard way that some Bantams are CRAZY FAST!! (ahem Bailey and Zoe).
We've both got Oahu Champs this weekend and State Champs two weekends later. Should be fun, we'll be working booths, fundraising for HCKT, come and buy!! In the by-week, we're flying out to CA for dragon boat Nationals (um, don't tell my crew that I've never paddled dragon boats before, ok?) and cruising around the southern part of the state. In our travels, we should be visiting some colleges (for Giulia) and the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista (so I can drool). The day following States, it's off to Oklahoma City and sprint flatwater canoe/kayak Nationals. Whew! Some couple months, I'd say.
We had a good practice this morning, Giulia liked it so much, she did it again in an OC6 -- Ryan is her favorite person right now, I'm sure.
I'm running the loop and pillboxes in the morning, then we're both going out on the K1, then C1 (just for kicks). So I had better get to sleep.
Kati