When Kristin Drost first came to Kailua-Kona to compete in Ironman, she noticed something that took her by surprise: A place known for hosting a world championship triathlon had no youth clubs for the sport.
Drost, 34, who will compete in her second Ironman World Championship next weekend, moved to Kona from Bozeman, Montana in 2009 and is now a math teacher at Kealakehe High School.
Just as Ironman — and Hawaii — had persisted in her mind, so did the idea of creating a venue where area youths could gather and share an appreciation for the endurance sport.
The Kealakehe High School Waverider Triathlon Club got started in 2012 with three students and a single donor who helped pay for bikes and other gear. Within its first year, the club grew to eight members. Six of them were seniors and competed in the Honu, the North Hawaii triathlon that for many athletes is a lead-in to the October championship.
Two of the charter members, Dan Gampon and Keoni Smith, went on to compete in the big race.
Today, the club has 24 members and is growing. So is its sponsorship, but more support is always needed, Drost said.
“The demand is here,” Drost said. “People are inspired by triathlons.”
For Bryan Sawaya, who competed in Ironman in 2012, it has been a pleasure to watch the Waverider kids progress from jitters to a steady confidence.
“When you do triathlon at that level, you basically become family,” said Sawaya, whose wife, Kristina, also competed in Ironman last year.
“You train so much together, you end up taking care of each other on and off the course,” said Sawaya, whose sons Austen and Cort are among the club’s 24 members.
“You see the kids go from being totally dependent on mom and dad to help them get ready, to doing half-Ironman almost on their own,” said Sawaya. “It’s amazing.”
The club sponsors four races each year to raise funds, and the Waveriders plan to expand on those events. The Race the Reaper 5K is slated for Oct. 25 at the Keauhou Shopping Center. The group also sponsors the Surviving the End of the World 10K, the Sweetheart Shuffle 5K in February and the 5K Leprechaun-a-thon in March. In August, the club traveled to participate in the Santa Barbara Triathlon, a real dose of independence for the youths, Sawaya said.
Waverider influence has found its way down to Konawaena, where the high school’s assistant cross-country coach David Wild is in the early stages of starting a similar club.
“I really want to have a youth team out here, knowing Kona is such a playground for triathlon,” said Wild, who helped found a triathlon club in Oakland before moving to the Big Island three months ago.
“I’m inspired by her,” Wild said of Drost. “She is doing what I want to be doing.”
Alexis DeCarli, a junior, has been with the Waveriders Triathlon Club since its inception. In 2013, she and her family watched her father compete in the Ironman World Championship, and DeCarli has Ironman dreams of her own.
“My family and friends are really close-knit,” she said. “Triathlon gives us something we all do together. It’s surrounded me with the best friends I could ask for.”
Because the sport is three combined activities, training doesn’t stress the body the way some repetitive events do, DeCarli said.
To hear Drost tell it, Malik Mariano was an introverted youth when he joined the club. Since then, he has done rides up Mauna Kea and tackled a two-wheeled ascent from The Queens’ MarketPlace in Waikoloa to the top of Mauna Loa.
“I didn’t know what I could actually do,” Mariano said.
Brandon Franco plans to compete in the Honu in May, just before he graduates. Triathlon is something he expects to keep doing.
“There are so many people to encourage you and motivate you,” he said of the club. “It makes you better.”
With the Ironman World Championship just around the corner, Drost said she doesn’t make drastic changes to her regimen leading up to the big race. She cuts out sugar but otherwise maintains even keel.
The 140.6-mile race requires such a commitment of body and mind that one of the athlete’s chief enemies approaching the starting line is doubt.
“I tell myself, you put in the miles, you put in the work,” Drost said. “Don’t doubt that you are prepared.”
“That’s what I try to impress on these kids.”