Outrigger

Outrigger


Yesterday before going I had a premonition about the outrigger
canoe race site at Kailua Beach. I'd heard on the weather report
there might be rain. I didn't get a clear image of rain.
Turned out to be wind, and out on the short sandy bluff
which marked the disappearing beach we were pelted with sand
and blown relentlessly. And the wind didn't stop or let up,
not for the five hours we were there.

The ocean was a raceway for the wind.
This made quite a run downwind, and a slurp of rolling,
blowing ocean upwind. Many of the younger, inexperienced crews
huli-ed, that is, flipped. Still, there's nothing
like the blue of the Pacific waters
and at Kailua the color is a perfect turquoise.

I raced in a mixed crew. And in the push of a race
you come to know yourself quite well.
I became muscle, lungs, ocean, muscle, lungs, canoe and wind.
We came in a close third, a few seconds behind one and two.
I loved it.


Joy Harjo.........from her Blogsite