History of Lanakila Outrigger Club

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By 1983 Al was slowing down and Mike Jacobs took over as men's coach, while Al coached the women and juniors. But by the next season Bob Bice had become the men's coach. Bob, a well respected and a strict disciplinarian took the teams to all the major international races in California, Hawaii and Tahiti.

Lanakila, which translates to, "Victory and/or determination", is usually one of the larger clubs in California and supports a large junior program designed to feed into the adult program.

In 1992, several major coaching changes were made. Bob Bice retired after 10 years, Josh Crayton took over the men's program, while Kim Nygaard took over the women. Josh is Al's brother in law, whom Al introduced to paddling at age 10.

1992 was a rocky year as new coaches Josh and Kim struggled with Al disagreeing on issues. It was a classic case of the new guard versus the old. By the end of the season, all three coaches had learned a valuable lesson in respecting each others ideas.

In the spring of 1993, Chantal Toporrow was appointed the new women's coach. Utilizing conference calls Al, Josh and Chantal began a once a week forum. Al now accepted fresh ideas and so began a new era of training methods, records, graphs, and goals.

1994 Chantal retired and Jennifer Buckley became the women's coach. Jennifer and Josh worked well together and brought their programs up to the highest level the club has yet experienced. Detailed planning and disciplined workouts were their strength together. Under their leadership the club became successful and flourished.

1998 Josh married a girl named Jane and found a new life, retiring and giving up the leadership.

Nathan Shore coached Lanakila for a year in 1999 and did well holding the men together. Without much help and many top paddlers gone he had to rebuild the program, eventually gathering enough of a team to place 2nd overall in the Catalina Race.

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