Preseason action:
Kicking off the 2015 season was a trip down under for Nappy and company , first to New Zealand and then a week later to Sydney, Australia. First stop was the annual Takapuna Cup near Auckland. and the 42 K marathon race on 2/21/2015 good for a third place in the Golden Master Division. The feature race in the Hawaiian Airlines Sydney Harbour Challenge is the 20K race taking paddlers from Manly past the iconic opera house around a buoy and back to the start. The crew just got edged out for the Golden master gold by Noosa in a race that saw Air Tahitiʻs fast stroking crew come across the finish in first place in a time of 1:41:23 topping the list of 40 crews.
Back home on Oahu, there were lots of preseason iron fundraiser events. Leading the charge were the Anuenue women entering the Kahiau race on 3/28 and finishing 3rd in the open division. Three crews came back with medals in the Malama Mokuaea event sponsored by New Hope CC at Sand Island. Competing in the short course on a beautiful sunny day, the wahine 60 crew took gold and the novice women got a silver. On the menʻs side, the 70s crew (Gaylord, Bill, Jon, Sam, Pete and Nappy) had a good day finishing first in the division and also fifth overall edging out their Keahiakahoe friends in a real back and forth battle.
