It’s been a historic season for the Waikoloa Canoe Club, which started in 1985, and has made big waves during the Moku O Hawaii Outrigger Canoe Racing Association season.
Last year, the West Hawaii club fielded the near maximum amount of crews for the B Division (1-14 events), but finished last four times and often got blown out of the water by rival Keoua Honaunau.
It’s a different story this summer under first-year head coach Daniel Legler, who’s a distant relative of Tim Legler, the former NBA player and current ESPN analyst.
On a Fourth of July steaming hot Saturday, Waikoloa finished runner-up to Keoua Honaunau by one point, 45-44, for the B Division crown at Puna’s regatta at a congested Hilo Bay.
“We had fun,” said Legler, who had 13 crews. “We missed it by one point. We’ll come back next week.”
Waikoloa had won the previous four B Division titles. In the Kai Ehitu season-opening regatta, Waikoloa and Keoua Honaunau each raced in the A Division, and Legler’s crew in the purple uniforms placed higher.
Under Legler, who was the club president about five years ago and paddled for Kai Opua and Keauhou before returning, a harmonious environment has contributed to unprecedented moments.
At the Kai Opua regatta on June 13, Waikoloa’s women open four (Hi’ilani Aldridge, Sarah Taylor-Balanga, Kahea Waiwaiole, Summer Dwyer Zandovskis) won the half-mile race — the club’s first gold since 1997.
That crew and the Waikoloa women 65 have a good amount of points in the Moku O Hawaii standings, and are poised to qualify for the Hawaii Canoe Racing Association state championships for the club’s first earned berth.
The HCRA state championships will be held Saturday, Aug. 1 at Hilo Bay for the first time since 2009. Moku O Hawaii will have three lanes in each of the 42 events.
“I don’t know about the club’s history in the early 1990s, but the only time we went to states is if we bought a lane,” said Legler, who owns a mason company. “No crew has qualified for states that I can remember. It looks like we’ll have two crews and that’s never happened.”
What’s the secret to Waikoloa’s success?
“It’s training,” said Legler, who quickly added that a jolly good time plays an important part. “There are lot of points in the half-mile races, so we train for a mile to make it easier to race, and make it fun. We have 100 paddlers registered to race this season.
“Everything is a blessing. I’m just trying to take what I’ve learned and give back to the club. It’s a credit to the paddlers. I can only help guide them in the right direction, and they’re the ones who do the extra work like yoga, cardio and running. My goal is to win the B Division at the Aunty Maile championships. And that’s never happened.”
It’s sort of a family affair for Legler, whose wife Lisa is a Moku O Hawaii timing official and also races for the club’s 40 mixed crew.
Taylor-Balanga and Waiwaiole are both first-year paddlers, but competed in the Queen Liliuokalani long-distance event last September, disqualifying them from rookie status and the B novice Moku O Hawaii races.
In another family affair, Taylor-Balanga and her husband June Balanga compete in the open mixed, and their son Kainalu, 9, paddles in the special events (non-scoring races before the start of the regatta).
She and her husband own Hulakai, a surf shop at Hilo Banyan and Mauna Lani, and Taylor-Balanga points to Legler as a reason for the club’s emergence.
“I definitely like coach Dan. He’s laid-back and a good coach,” she said. “He listens to us and we work together and he wants to do what works for us.”