Business Beyond the Reef

The championship regatta for my canoe racing association (one of two on Oahu) was this past weekend. We had high hopes of doing well after our great results the previous week at Waikiki. But it wasn’t to be. We paddled in flat water at Ke’ehi Lagoon rather than Waikiki’s breaking waves. I paddled with our men’s 60 and over crew. We took 4th, just off the podium. Oh well. Wait ’til next year!

Windward Kai's 50 men in action at Ke'ehi Lagoon.

Posts may be sparse for a while. We have never had such a spate of visitors. I love them, but they do eat up the time. I am more likely to be on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook for a while, but will post more lengthy rants when time allows.

We charged out of the turn in 3rd and rode some small bumps to overtake the 2nd place canoe. Then the fun began. The 1st place boat was far ahead in the lane next to us and were getting better waves to ride. Our steersman alertly moved us over into their lane to catch up. That meant we got the same good waves, got them first, and broke the waves up before they could take advantage of the ride. And they didn’t know we were right behind them and gaining. We paddled hard and well, and our steersman moved us back out to pass as we raced for the finish line.

Waikiki racing

This is outrigger canoe racing at Waikiki, an in-and-out race finishing right at the beach in front of the Outrigger, the Moana and the Royal Hawaiian. The summer waves are always unpredictable and canoes and crews can get smashed in the surf. The day always starts out beautiful and calm, so we run the kids’ races then, building up to the more extreme conditions for the more seasoned adults. There are always boats that huli (turn over) on the inbound leg or are simply swamped by breaking waves on their outbound leg. In Sunday’s regatta, we were treated to the sight of a crew and steersman fighting to save their boat from a huli, before finally going over when they hit another boat and knocking their steersman into the water. The second crew didn’t know they had lost their steersman until they started turning unpredictably in breaking waves. The paddler in seat five steered as best he could and they brought their boat safely across the line. In another race, a wave knocked a paddler out of his boat. The crew went on to make their turn and picked him up on the way back to finish with the mandatory six crew members.

Waikiki brings out the craziness. Windward Kai declared it “ugly aloha shirt day” and raced in the loudest shirts you have ever seen. Other crews wore sombreros and mustaches, or paddled as caped crusaders. Fun.

I paddled with Windward Kai’s mixed 60s (three men and three women, all over 60). When we pulled out of the wake of the leading boat for the finish, they had looks of astonishment since they had no idea we were right behind and gaining. We kept gaining as the line approached, paddling our hardest and taking advantage of our momentum. We crossed the line in what appeared to be a dead heat.  But the clock said we were 2nd – by .35 seconds. A photo finish. Wait ’til next time!

If you want more in-depth coverage of outrigger paddling, check out Pacific Paddler. Better yet, get a subscription! And, if you are visiting Honolulu, come on out to Ke’ehi Lagoon this Saturday for our association’s Oahu championships.

How many of your constituents export, Senator?

No matter how fine-sounding the rhetoric, politicians always think local, not global. They may talk a good story, but far too many of them get knee-deep in the local hoopla (or whatever) when it comes to campaign season. You are going to hear a lot of anti-trade rhetoric the next few (?) months from populist politicians in both parties (following Phyllis Schlafly’s lead) who don’t bother to check their facts first. That’s why a new website put up by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may become useful.

International trade supports millions of American jobs. One in three manufacturing jobs depends on exports, and one in three acres on American farms is planted for hungry consumers overseas. More than 95% of the world’s consumers live outside our borders, and their demand for American goods and services is growing every day.

But what is the impact of trade in your state and community?

That’s the lead in to Trade Supports Jobs, where you can directly check on the number of jobs supported by exports in your state or Congressional district. The site even identifies many of the exporting companies in your vicinity. Some of them are going to surprise you. And they are probably going to surprise your local politicians. Help them keep their facts straight.

A big limitation of the site is that it only addresses exports of physical goods – and does not cover services exports. That may not be a big thing for large manufacturing or farming states, but it reduces the site’s utility for a state like Hawaii where services are everything. Hawaii’s hard goods exports are miniscule next to tourism, education, architecture and engineering, and the other services. Still, there is good stuff to be found. Hawaii’s first Congressional district, for instance, owes at least 1255 jobs to hard goods exports and contains at least 91 exporting companies. (I have to say “at least” because I know of some who are not in the Chamber’s database.) The district exported more than $435 million in 2010 and $189 million of that was under the free trade agreements so dreaded by our Democratic members of Congress. Now I can say to our representative for the first district that if she votes against FTAs, she is threatening the jobs of at least 545 of her constituents.

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No special paddling report this week. We raced at Ke’ehi Lagoon again last Sunday. This time I paddled 3rd seat in our men’s 60 crew. That was a surprise because 3 is a power seat and I am not a power paddler. The paddlers in 3 and 4 are your “engine room”, where you want your biggest, most muscular crew members. But you do what the coach says and we still finished 4th, garnering one more precious point towards getting into the state championships. The top three at the end of the season go to states. We have more paddling to do.