March 16 and 17 is the Arizona Aloha Festival at Tempe Beach Park off Rio Salado Parkway. This is the event’s 30th anniversary! The Na Leo O Ke Kai Ohana will be there with one of our canoes. We’ll have plenty of good stuff for sale too, as well as stories to share. We also volunteer at Paradise BBQ food tent to help earn money for the club. Come by and join us!

Aloha and Happy 2024. The New Year started off with a bang and a birthday. Diane Escalante, one of the OGs of Na Leo, turned 80 with a big celebration that brought together generations of paddlers, friends and family and a few other OGs to celebrate her: Auntie Louise Navarro, Bobby Mahoe and Art Keanini.

Na Leo also launched a new approach to the keiki program, combining the keiki outrigger crew with the keiki dragon boat crew, a partnership that brings all the kids together as a group to do both sports. Their first paddle out day was a hit!

Na Leo individual paddlers also kicked things off at the Hano Hano Challenge, a SCORA winter series race hosted in San Diego’s Mission Bay. Amy and Laura took first in short course, ahead of all other women’s OC2 crews. Andy (OC1), Ceci and Peggy (OC2) took on the 12.5 mile long course and survived. Good times!

Join us at our Feb. 4 new season kick off to find out about lots more to come!

Aloha! Another Dam Race added a new category – Friday sprints – to it’s wealth of choices on Saturday. There was something for everyone and everyone in something this year!

Friday Sprints:

Team Phoenix had two women’s crews: Women’s Silver – Betty, Hedy, Tallman, Alison, Vega and Ilona – 2nd Place and Open Women – Adrienne, Lucie, Amy, Alicia, Julie, Hisano – 3rd Place

Na Leo paddlers were in the Keiki Crew – Preston, Lilly, Jackie, Joey, Melissa and Elijah (TAZ); a Juniors Crew – Gracie, Ayvah, Jerome, Patrick, Zoie and Kalani – 3rd Place; a Men’s Crew – Ryan, Richard, Kahale, Richard, Mike, Uncle Art and Joey; an Open Co-Ed – Andy, Amy, Alicia, Doug (Wisconsin), Vince and Cynthia (Florida) – 1st Place; and Open Co-Ed – Ryan, Kahale, Mike, Lucie, Adrienne and Makana – 3rd Place.

Saturday Races:

Short Course – Na Leo had V12 Keiki Crew/Adults – Patrick, Jerome, Kalani, Ayvah, Zoie, Preston, Patrick (Dad to Preston), Joey, Jackie, Adrienne, Rachel and Erica. And there were Na Leo paddlers in short courses with others, including Open women V6 (Alicia – 1st place) and Baby Goats – Breast Cancer Survivors V12 (Melissa, Michelle and Makana). Coach Vince completed the course on prone!

Long Course – Na Leo had V12 coed crew with Makana, Justina, Lucie, Vega, Kahale, Richard, Uncle Art, Ryan, Adrienne, Vince, Gene, Amy (1st Place) and a blended Panama-a-a-aaa V6 (Julie and Betty, 2nd place). And coming in 3rd place in OC1 was Andy Thomas. A fabulous weekend with great people!

USA Sprint National Championships were held for the first time on Lake Natoma in Sacramento, CA on Oct. 14 and 15 and Team Phoenix was there with paddlers racing in the open, 40s, 50s and 60s categories (500M and 1000M) and individual Team Phoenix paddlers racing in open, 40s, 50s, 60s and 75s V1 (500M). Everyone paddled their hearts out, most advanced to finals and many finished top 3: Open Women 1000 – 2nd place; 40s men 500 and 1000 – 2nd place; 50s women 500 – 2nd place and 1000 – 3rd place; and 60s women 500 – 3rd place. Congratulations racers!

USA Sprint National Championships is the qualifying race to represent Team USA (mainland US) at the IVF World Sprint Championships to be held in Hilo, Hawaii in 2024. Thank you to Head IVF coach Alicia Lin Kee, Amy Thomas and IVF men’s coaches Andy Thomas and Vince San Nicolas for taking on significant coaching responsibilities, in addition to representing on the race course, and to presidents and coaches of Team Arizona and Na Leo O Ke Kai for critical support. And YES! Team Phoenix will be going to Hilo, Hawaii in 2024. Details pending.

History of Team Phoenix. We are a group of people with different abilities, talents, experiences and backgrounds who have come together for a shared purpose, to paddle! There are no shortcuts, we need to put in the hard work, dedication, sacrifice, effort, commitment, teamwork and patience to level up! Team Phoenix was originally formed in 2021 with paddlers from Na Leo O Ke Kai, Team Arizona and SunGi, MonGi and PFD dragon boat teams and coached for 2022 IVF competition by former Na Leo head coach Margaret Coulombe, with support from Alicia Lin Kee (coach with Na Leo) and Laura Baack (coach of PFD). The goal for the group was to take the best in Phoenix and elevate our performance nationally and internationally. In 2023, Team Phoenix expanded significantly, including attracting athletes from AZ, CA, NV and OR. Looking forward to 2024 in Hawaii. Go Team!

On Sept. 23 at 9 a.m., there will be a Paddle Out for Lahaina and Maui families who have been impacted by the wildfires. Details below! Also, congratulations to Na Le O Ke Kai mixed team (Alicia, Andy, Amy, Ryan, Julie and guest steers Hisano), who raced at the 50th Anniversary Queen Liliuokalani event on Big Island. Kudos also to Na Leo O Ke Kai club members Ceci and Peggy who placed 4th in 50+ women and 2nd in double hull with Washington Canoe Club (Washington, DC) and Lucy who placed 2nd in 40+ women and 1st in double hull 40s (with Amy) and raced with Makana’s wonderful Hale’iwa’s women’s crews. Congratulations all!

Aloha. It’s hard to believe that we are approaching September and that most of the keiki are already back in school. We’ve had adult general practices on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings, plus special sessions on Thursday eves and Sunday mornings for our men and women partnering with paddlers on Team Arizona training to attend USAORCA Nationals Oct. 14 and 15 as Team Phoenix. And then there are those who have added in their outrigger training to attend Queen Liliuokalani’s 50th Anniversary on Big Island at the end of the month. Head Coach Vince and club president have also been working with members of the keiki team on Sunday mornings, teaching OC1 canoe skills as well as OC6.

We may be in a desert, but there’s been lots of water time!

Na Leo O Ke Kai crews finished out the iron SCORA season with juniors, short course, open women, open coed, masters coed (3rd place winners), and men’s crews at Iron Champs in San Diego. It was an awesome weekend with Ohana Va’a. To top off our June activities, Na Leo started the small boat Sunday series, and also joined with the outrigger and dragon boat communities on Tempe Town Lake for a lake clean up day, supported by City of Tempe. I don’t know how much we picked up, but most of us filled and emptied our buckets with everything from fishing hooks and weights to clothing, cups and food wrappers. Thanks to everyone for investing in our lakeside.

Na Leo had three crews at the Kahanamoku Klassics SCORA race in Marina Del Rey: short course coed, long course open women and long course master’s coed crews. The day was sunny and the water beautiful. Thanks to our guest steersman, Hisano and guest short course paddler, Tyler. Also, congratulations to Alicia Lin Kee on her first time steering (short course)! And, congratulations to Betty Flores for making the Team USA Senior B 20 person crew for IDBF World Dragon Boat Races in Thailand (coming this summer). What to rock it, gangy!

Next up: Iron Champs in San Diego