Lovely to see so many new faces at our first Open House. We have two more days set up to welcome you. Come out and meet the crew and paddle on March 28 and March 30 at 6 pm at the Tempe Town Lake Marina. Bring water and casual clothes to paddle in. Hope to see you there!

April 15 is the date set for our Kalua Pig Fundraiser this year. We are doing pre-orders now! You can email/tell your orders to naleookekai@gmail.com (or any club member) before the 15th.

So many great things happening this weekend (March 11 and 12) at the annual Aloha Festival in Tempe. Come get your malasadas on! Come eat plate lunch at the Paradise Hawaiian BBQ and come meet us in the Ohana Village. We will also have new Na Leo O Ke Kai merchandise on hand.

If you want to help us volunteer for our friends Diana and Rena at the Paradise Hawaiian Barbeque booth on Sunday, we could use your help. Sign up here (and you have to get a food safety card): https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4baca82ba2fd0-paradise#/

The following week, we will have Na Leo’s Open House, so you can meet the crew and paddle. Open House dates are March 19 at 12 pm, March 21 at 6 pm and March 23 at 6 pm at the Tempe Town Lake Marina. Bring water and casual clothes to paddle in. Hope to see you there!

Na Leo practices have kicked off for 2023! Remember, you only get out what you put in, self checking, heavy water at the catch and working those big muscles! Check out the HEJA app to join the on-water and off-water workouts.

Another Dam Race was a wonderful end to our race season in Parker, AZ with plenty wins! Congratulations to our wonderful teammates!

Wahines – First place! Open Kanes – Second place! Open Wahines OC1 – First place! Wahine OC1 – First place!

And remember our end of the season party of Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. Let’s celebrate a great season, enjoy each other’s company, share stories and memories and what to look forward to next season!

Aloha Friends and Ohana of Na Leo ‘O Ke Kai, get your chances to WIN an ARE Tahiti V1 Marara Hybrid!

Another Dam Race is right around the corner and our little Desert Club, Na Leo O’ Ke Kai is raffling a new ARE Tahiti V1 Marara Hybrid canoe, courtesy of ARE Outrigger World, ARE Tahiti’s exclusive distributor for North America and Hawaii. The drawing will take place Saturday, November 5, 2022 after the awards ceremony for Another Dam Race in Parker, Arizona.

$10 a Raffle Ticket can be purchased @ https://www.zeffy.com/…/e602ddec-39ba-4b8b-a884…

***Note: Raffle Winner is responsible for pick up of V1 on November 5th. Questions?: naleookekai@gmail.com

In October, six of us went to do the ChattaJack Challenge Race, a 32-mile event held on the Chattanooga River in Tennessee. For the sixth year in a row, Coach Vince competed, this time in a three-man outrigger canoe with his wife Lena and Alicia Lin Kee. The trio flew along the 32 miles around 5:08 hours. Coming in at 5:30 were Ceci Ng and Peggy Coulombe in the OC2 and Laura Baack around 5:52. Good times had by all, with mega thanks to Vince and Lena for trailering the canoes (and canoes for other competitors) from California to Tennessee and back!

Race start at ChattaJack, Chattanooga River, Tennessee.

Hurricane conditions brought about the first-ever cancellation of the crossing from Newport to Catalina Island; however, SCORA created a 20-mile change race for competitors. We consolidated our teams and our open coed crew captured 2nd place! Way to go, team.

Our summer training with Na Leo O Ke Kai has an added element: weekly land workouts and weight training. Thanks, Ryan and Nick! Make sure you keep on track with your teammates and the program on Heja. August also brings back the keiki team on Sundays. Check in with coaches Christel and Joey to find out what’s coming up. On the SCORA circuit, the Catalina crew is out of the water on Thursday nights, including a change practice held at Saguaro Lake. Check out the Instagram for inspiration (and perhaps a few good laughs). Finally, well wishes to our teammates headed to London as part of Team Phoenix, representing the U.S. Mainland/SCORA/Arizona in club crew, at the International Va’a Federation World Sprint Championships from Aug. 8-16 (Alicia, Vince, Lena, Julie, Ceci, Peggy and Stephanie). In addition, Coach Vince will be competing in V1 and racing V6 as part of the U.S. elite open men’s team and Stephanie will be racing V6 as a member of the U.S. open women’s elite team, both representing the U.S. Mainland. Bring back another medal, IVFers! Good luck. Your dedication has been truly inspirational.

Na Leo represented this weekend at the Iron Champs in San Diego! Coming together is the beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success. It has been an amazing season, growing and building Na Leo, everyone finding their place within our Na Leo Ohana, working together and getting to know each other. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life! What an amazing iron race season.

If you weren’t there, you should have been. Na Leo O Ke Kai had crews in novice coed, short course women, long course men and long course women. Everyone was in it together and some of our paddlers helped fill out crews with other clubs as well. What an awesome Mother’s Day weekend, from good times with old friends to building memories with new friends.

Our busy spring has included two Open Houses and our annual canoe blessing. Welcome to all our new paddlers! So wonderful to see so many new faces in the canoes, along with our members from the beginning. Glad that you are bringing your good mana and strength. Lots of adventures ahead.

Speaking of adventures, Na Leo fielded a coed crew for the Havasu Heats in April, taking first place and head coach Vince San Nicolas brought home a personal first place in his V1. Way to go gang!

The first race of the season is May 7 at Crystal Pier with the Southern California Outrigger Racing Association. We’ll have novice, experienced and keiki crews. But later this summer, members of Na Leo and Team Arizona qualified to compete as an AZ women’s open and master’s crew, and three guys will join USAORCA open men’s crews, at the International Va’a Federation World Sprint Championships in August. Sign up to practice on Heja and look forward to seeing you on Tempe Town Lake soon.