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Dane Ward
Written by Nicole LaPrade
For Dane Ward, the ocean is in her blood. Her father was a fisherman. Her brother and a nephew are North Shore lifeguards. Her four sisters and their kids are paddlers and do other water sports. Her husband is a paddler, and now their six-year-old son Kaaumoana, or Moana for short, is too.
"It's fun to see Moana. He likes to go out in the canoe sometimes, and I've actually, when he was 2, 3, and 4 years old, I would go out with him a lot on the back of my boat," Ward said. "He liked doing that, but he's kinda getting too heavy now for me to carry on the back of my boat."
On this January day, Ward and Moana are on Oahu for a few days visiting her sister and her family at their new Kawela Bay home. The beach front house reminds Ward of visiting her grandmother, whose last name was Kaaumoana, at her home across the bay. Moana and his cousins now explore the same bay that Ward knows so well. Moana even has his own Hawaiian Canoe Club rash guard.
"I'll take him out on a two-man for kayaking and he has his own paddle. So, he'll paddle, but he just kind of fools around. He's having fun. So that's the main thing, just kind of getting him interested in it and getting him out in the water," she said.
Ward now paddles for Team Bradley, and September 2007 marked the crew's third straight Na Wahine O Ke Kai win. The nine women of the crew, many of whom are mothers, live throughout the state, so they don't train together as often as a normal club would. They do most of their training and conditioning individually and then come together for the races.
The stay-at-home mom says she trains four to five days a week during the season, and likes to cross train, do stand-up paddling, and paddle boarding.
"I mix it up a lot and do a lot of down-wind runs to keep it fun," she said.
She also loves to take Moana surfing.
"We don't have to worry about showing up for a scheduled practice," Ward said. "It's a lot easier to do it on your own and not have to worry about missing practices and the commitment you have to make to a club. This is working for us, and has worked for us."
Teammate and long-time friend Lauren Bartlett agrees.
"It works for us, how we do it. A lot of us have kids and family obligations. It allows us to compete at a competitive level, and still be focused on the family," Bartlett said. "We just train whenever we have a moment. We get together and jump in a six man a couple times a season… and work out the kinks. All the races are used as training too."
All their training is in preparation for one day each year.
"Molokai is when we don't mess around. We want to have everything figured out by channel day," Bartlett said.
They've been called an all-star crew, but Ward says that's not how they think of themselves. Instead, she says they're just are just good friends who have a long history together.
"Five of us from the team all paddled at Hawaiian Canoe Club about 12 or 13 years ago. So we were all friends from that," she said.
Since they train on their own, Ward says the women are also more excited to see each other on race days when they do get to paddle together as a team.
"It definitely keeps it fresh. We all are really close and we all are good friends, so we love to get together and hang out. We train hard together, and then we'll have our pupu-cocktail party after. We definitely all enjoy each other's company, and I think that makes it more fun," Bartlett said.
Ward says the women's competitive nature also helps each of them excel as a team or if they want to compete in the one man season.
"It's fun to push each other. No one's going to give up. We're always pushing harder when we're paddling together, or paddling one mans, or whatever we're doing out in the water. We always push each other harder and nobody wants to back down. All of us are super competitive," she said.
"It's really good for training if I'm doing the solo, or if I'm gonna do the one man season seriously. I have people to train with, and to push, and to try to gauge what I need to be doing," Ward said.
The Team Bradley girls also get together for the OC-1 Molokai channel relays. Bartlett and Ward did the relay for the first time together in 2006. They won the race and broke the record.
"We were really happy about that because the Aussie's had the record, and we were able to bring it back to Hawaii," Bartlett said.
The women have been friends for nearly 15 years. As a relay partner, and friend, Bartlett says the women love to hang out.
"She's always crackin' jokes, and we joke around a lot together. She's strong and she's aggressive, and it's really fun to paddle with her. She's a good friend, so that makes it even more fun, to be with your friends out there," Bartlett said. "The success is just the dessert, the sweet part about it. We just really enjoy being together, and being out there, and being in the ocean. Not too many people get to experience canoe paddling like that."
Many of the Team Bradley girls paddled together at Hawaiian Canoe Club, and for Ward, the club is her second family. The long-time club member is now a coach, and her husband Dave is club president. They met while paddling together 15 years ago.
While she loves the schedule she has with Team Bradley, she also loves the club aspect of the sport. Ward first became serious about paddling while going to Kamehameha Schools. She was a boarder, and like she says many boarders did, she signed up for paddling because it was a chance to get off campus everyday and go to the beach. She was hooked.
Kamehameha coach Auntie Rosie Lum was also a great inspiration for her.
"Think of all the kids she's influenced over the years," Ward said.
While Ward paddled with various clubs over the years, she says she grew up with Hawaiian. She now hopes to be able to give back to the club and pass on what she knows about the sport as a coach.
"It's fun to feel like you're really helping someone get into the sport. It's rewarding to help a crew out because it's hard to find coaches. People who coach love the sport, and they want to see people enjoy the sport, and enjoy the channel, and any other race like that," she said.
Coaching also gives Ward a deeper appreciation for her coaches. She says it's important for Team Bradley to have a coach, even with their many years of experience.
"The sport is always changing, and I'm always learning," she said.
She says she especially saw a difference this past year when Johnny Puakea became their coach. They've always had someone on their boat to help them, but Ward says Puakea took it a step further. He gives them all training homework and was able to get them all on the same page.
"Johnny is a great coach because even though he barely says anything, he's able to get us to perform, to be smart about the course, and to refine our strokes and techniques," Ward said.
She also says that he played a big role in getting them to the top.
"Even though we're all great paddlers, we're also good friends. We're all respectful of each other and don't want to tell each other what to do, or to step on any toes. Johnny solved that for us because he tells us what to do. With Johnny, we don't have to think about anything."
"I love paddling and I love just being in the ocean. I think that that's the thing everyone who paddles or surfs or does something in the ocean – they just love it, and that's why you do it," Ward said.
As for the future, she hopes to paddle for as long as she can. She says she would like to win the channel race again in the six-man, coach more, keep training, and help others in the sport.
"It's a sport where you don't have to be a teen or in your 20's. I have friends who are in their 50's and are still very competitive. It's a lifestyle, and it's great to have her family involved."
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