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Spirit
of Aloha | Articles
| Aloha Shorts | May/June
2007
Aloha
Shorts
News
and Notes from Around our World
Photo:COURTESY TRANSPAC YACHT CLUB
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This Is No Mickey Mouse Race
Since 1906, sailors have competed for fun and glory in the Transpacific Yacht Race, from California to Hawai‘i, an event that originally was the vision of King David Kaläkaua. Although the revered king did not live to see the start of the first race—best known as Transpac—his promise of aloha to the sailors has long been a reality. Every two years, clubs and businesses on O‘ahu host the hordes of racers and friends who converge on the Ala Wai after the rip-roaring finish abreast Diamond Head.
If you think the flight from the Mainland to Hawai‘i is long, try the Transpac. These boats require two weeks to sail here. They come in all shapes and sizes: from the family-and-friends crew on the wee 40-foot Cirrus to Roy Disney’s $10 million, 86-foot, carbon-fiber Pyewacket. Disney, 77, will race in his 16th Transpac and is pulling out all stops to break the event record, which currently stands at six days, 16 hours, four minutes and 11 seconds.
Famous participants have long been a part of the century-old tradition, including Duke Kahanamoku, Ted Turner, Ted Kennedy and the Wizard of Oz, Frank Morgan, who once said he’d rather win the Transpac than an Oscar. This year the Hollywood spotlight returns, with a feature film slated to be made, highlighting a team of young racers sailing the 52-foot yacht Morning Light.
Transpac begins in Los Angeles, with staggered starts. So if you’re flying Aloha between July 9 and July 28, peer out your window and see if you can spot any of the 70 boats competing this year. When they arrive, Honolulu rocks and rolls with parties and excitement: hula dancers, mai tais and a warm welcome for each crew member—regardless of the time of day. To track Transpac ’07 and the upcoming festivities, go to www.transpacificyc.org
—Betsy Crowfoot
Since 1906, sailors have competed for fun and glory in the Transpacific Yacht Race, from California to Hawai‘i, an event that originally was the vision of King David Kaläkaua. Although the revered king did not live to see the start of the first race—best known as Transpac—his promise of aloha to the sailors has long been a reality. Every two years, clubs and businesses on O‘ahu host the hordes of racers and friends who converge on the Ala Wai after the rip-roaring finish abreast Diamond Head.
If you think the flight from the Mainland to Hawai‘i is long, try the Transpac. These boats require two weeks to sail here. They come in all shapes and sizes: from the family-and-friends crew on the wee 40-foot Cirrus to Roy Disney’s $10 million, 86-foot, carbon-fiber Pyewacket. Disney, 77, will race in his 16th Transpac and is pulling out all stops to break the event record, which currently stands at six days, 16 hours, four minutes and 11 seconds.
Famous participants have long been a part of the century-old tradition, including Duke Kahanamoku, Ted Turner, Ted Kennedy and the Wizard of Oz, Frank Morgan, who once said he’d rather win the Transpac than an Oscar. This year the Hollywood spotlight returns, with a feature film slated to be made, highlighting a team of young racers sailing the 52-foot yacht Morning Light.
Transpac begins in Los Angeles, with staggered starts. So if you’re flying Aloha between July 9 and July 28, peer out your window and see if you can spot any of the 70 boats competing this year. When they arrive, Honolulu rocks and rolls with parties and excitement: hula dancers, mai tais and a warm welcome for each crew member—regardless of the time of day. To track Transpac ’07 and the upcoming festivities, go to www.transpacificyc.org
—Betsy Crowfoot
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A Three-Peat for Spirit of Aloha
For the third consecutive year, SPIRIT OF ALOHA has been named Hawai‘i’s best visitor publication (in the category of 500,000 copies a year or more) by the prestigious Hawai‘i Publishers Association. The first-place Pa‘i Award was for issues published in 2006. The magazine also won this award in 2004 and 2005. SPIRIT OF ALOHA also won a first-place award for business and industry reporting, two second-place awards, and four third-place awards. Impartial judging for the awards was done by Mainland editors and graphics authorities.
Mahalo! Mahalo! Mahalo!
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PHOTO: DINA KAGELER
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Free Guided Nature Tours
Old-growth Hawaiian rain forest is a sight to behold, and tours that were inaugurated in April and will continue through 2008 (and, we hope, beyond) can take you there. The Volcano Art Center, with a grant from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s Natural Resources Program, is offering the free one-hour tours along the nature trail at Niaulani, a mile from the entrance to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National park, every Monday beginning at 9:30 a.m. The walk is an easy, educational one—a half-mile loop that introduces participants to the native plants and birds of Volcano. It focuses on the biological, ecological and geological features of the area, as well as the cultural usages of flora and fauna by Native Hawaiians.
Interested visitors should meet at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus, located on the corner of Kalanikoa at 19-4074 Old Volcano Road, which is the main road through Volcano Village, just off Highway 11. Advance reservations are not required.
The forest at Niaulani, which is at 4,000 feet, can be cool, so dress warmly and bring wet-weather gear.
Call 967-8222 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org . |
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PPHOTO: COVEREDIMAGES.COM
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PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE—FROM MOLOKA‘I TO O‘AHU
An international crowd of open-ocean paddlers will compete on May 20 in the 31st annual 37-mile Moloka‘i World Championship race for solo outrigger canoe and surf ski. This year’s race will require extra endurance, because the course has added five more miles to the total distance. This endurance test across the challenging Kaiwi Channel (better known as the Moloka‘i Channel) is not just a world championship race for each of these paddling categories, it’s also one of the most demanding. It begins at Kaluako‘i Beach on Moloka‘i and finishes (this year, for the first time) at Queen’s Beach, Waikïkï. More than 100 paddlers—men and women—will participate. They come from more than a dozen countries, including Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Belgium, China and Tahiti. It takes about four hours for the journey, but the men’s canoe record is 3:42.24, set in 2006. Try to be there.. |
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Win a $25 Gift Card from Crazy Shirts!
Between May 1 and June 30, all passengers on every Aloha Airlines Hawai‘i-bound flight from the Mainland have a chance to win a $25 gift card from Hawai‘i Crazy Shirts in our continuing family-friendly onboard game. Sometime during the trip, flight attendants will pass out a printed game piece with three questions. The answers are found in this issue of SPIRIT OF ALOHA. Answer the questions correctly, write your name and seat number on the game piece and return it to your flight attendant. A winner will be announced before landing, and awarded the gift card.
All passengers will also receive a coupon good for 10 percent off at any Hawai‘i Crazy Shirts outlet. So, let the game begin!
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MUSIC:
Listen Up
• Various Artists—Legends of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar: Live from Maui: This is Hawai‘i music’s third consecutive Grammy Award winner, and the second in a row mixed and mastered by Daniel Ho. It was recorded live at the slack key concert series at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, and, according to Brickwood, “it brings together most of the masters who have taken Hawaiian music to a world-class level.” Among the artists are George Kahumoku Jr., Led Ka‘apana, Cyril Pahinui, Dennis Kamakahi, Martin Pahinui, Keoki Kahumoku, Daniel Ho and Ozzie Kotani, with special appearances by Richard Ho‘opi‘i, Bobby Ingano and Da ‘Ukulele Boyz. This is one you ought to have, and it’s one you need. (Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Productions, Inc.).
• Pali—Presents a Tribute: Because Pali has brought together “the giants in the field of Hawaiian music,” this CD was a “gutsy thing to do,” says Brickwood. As the liner notes ask, “Who doesn’t know the music of Kalapana, Summer, Country Comfort, Cecilio and Kapono, Keola and Kapono Beamer, and The Peter Moon Band?” Brickwood’s favorite cut is “Way That I Want It to Be,” by Mackey Feary Jr. “But I take my hat off to everybody who did this,” he says. (Tropical Music).
• Cody Pueo Pata—“He Aloha…”: Past winner (1999) of the statewide falsetto singing competition, Pueo is a singer, composer, musician, dancer, chanter and kumu hula (hula teacher). Says Brickwood: “He represents the fresh new sound of traditional Hawaiian music.” Includes seven original sounds, six standards and another by fellow kumu hula Pono Murray. “It’s a perfect CD to add to your hula library,” says Brickwood.
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Books
• Keeping the Spirit Alive- What is special about the traditional practices and ways of life in Old Hawai‘i, and, in the face of a century of U.S. control, how have Native Hawaiians survived as a unique and dignified people? These questions are asked and answered in considerable depth and mastery by Davianna Pömaika‘i McGregor in Nä Kua‘äina: Living Hawaiian Culture (University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2007). Professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawai‘i, McGregor presents many absorbing case studies describing how, through hard work and perseverance, Hawaiian natural and cultural resources have been revived and regenerated in out-of-the-way rural communities despite Westernization.
• Keeping the Land Alive - The November 1959 eruption of the Big Island’s Kïlauea Iki, the small crater outside the east rim of Kïlauea Volcano’s caldera, covered a total area of 1,250 acres. Lava layers as deep as 40 feet buried a rain forest. A naturalist with the National Park Services, Garrett A. Smathers, was transferred to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park soon after the eruption and became curious “about how such destruction of vegetation would recover, and what role native vs. non-native plants would play in the recovery process.” With Dieter Mueller-Dombois, a former member of the botany faculty at the University of Hawai‘i, he studied vegetation development in the devastated areas for five decades. Their book, Hawai‘i, the Fires of Life: Rebirth in Volcano Land (Mutual Publishing, Honolulu, 2007), describes how life could flourish after such destruction, and the amazing ways in which rain forests and native shrubs have taken root in the barren lava fields.
• The Art of the Warrior As little as 30 years ago, it was thought by many historians that the cultural lore of Hawai‘i’s ancient warriors was a lost art. A rejuvenation has since occurred, thanks to the deep interest of many martial-arts specialists, including multifaceted Sid Campbell, a karate grandmaster with a 10th-degree black belt, who happens to supervise 48 karate schools in the U.S. and abroad. His book, Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Hawai‘i (Black Snake Books, Berkeley, Ca., 2006), is a passionate and vivid description of the warrior culture, the mystique of the ancient Hawaiian fighters and their varied weapons. Appropriately, Campbell was inducted into the Hawai‘i Martial Arts International Society’s Hall of Fame in 2005.
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