Talk Story - The Newsletter of Kikaha O Ke Kai
October 8, 2024
Chicken Long Race offers competition,
chilly weather and a bowl of hot soup
October may bring the chill of fall to Tacoma, but that doesn’t stop Pacific Northwest paddlers from entering the Chicken Long Race Solo/Relay. They know that even if they don’t win their division, which comes with a rubber chicken for a prize, they’ll have a warm bowl of Auntie Bren’s famous chicken long rice soup.
This year, Kīkaha O Ke Kai’s annual event will be held on Oct. 19. Paddlers typically race in pairs, but some choose to complete the entire 10-mile race solo. In 2023, there were nearly 130 paddlers. The entry fee is $25 per paddler. Register here.
When it started in the fall of 1997, it wasn’t a relay and instead served as a way to select paddlers for the IVF World Sprints in August 1998 in Fiji. After that, the event, at the time dubbed the Ruston Relay, was born.
The soup became a part of the race because everyone was cold, said long-time Kīkaha paddler Boy Chun Fook, who prepares the soup with his wife, Brenda. “Last year, we had 80 pounds of chicken and 12 bags of chicken long rice,” he said. “You can feed 200 to 300 people one serving. But everybody likes two bowls.”
Cooking usually starts midday on the Friday before the race. “We de-bone and shred the chicken late at night,” he said. “That work is a lot of love and a lot of aloha.”
E Komo Mai a big success for Kīkaha, community
By every account, E Komo Mai was a huge success for Kīkaha O Ke Kai, attracting more than 1,000 people to the community cultural event held by the club on Sept. 29 at Owen Beach in Tacoma.
“We had hoped to reach 100 to 150 members of the public and we reached well over 1,000 plus,” said Joe Villegas, who helped organize the event. “We had hoped to give 40 members of the public a demonstration ride on our canoes and we ended up giving rides to 77 members of the public.”
The event, which featured Hawaiian entertainment, food and lei making, was made possible with funds Kīkaha received from Tacoma Creates, which works to increase access to culture, heritage and science in Tacoma by reducing barriers to access, especially for underserved youth. Kīkaha was one of 74 organizations that received a portion – $17,057 – of Tacoma Create’s $5.9 million.
“We had many vendors that are too numerous to mention in this short article, but they will be mentioned on our Kīkaha website,” Villegas said. “We would like to publicly thank our stage entertainment which consisted of the Kaimiola Polynesian Dancers, Monday Ukelele Ohana and Northwest Blend.”
Villegas said he hopes the club will make E Komo Mai an annual event
Kīkaha paddlers on the go
Kīkaha members are filling their calendar this fall with races from Hawaii to Chicago … Lon Kincannon, Dave Oreiro, Karl Burch and Craig Holt will paddle Oct. 13 in the Molokai Hoe, which is back after a four-year hiatus … Joy Yoder will run the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 13.
Talk Story seeks to cultivate a strong, unified identity for Kīkaha O Ke Kai, reflecting the spirit of Hawaiian outrigger canoe paddling. It is
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