KONA HAWAII

The core members of this competition are Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and Tahiti. After competing as guests for 3 consecutive years Hawaii became eligible to host this year’s event.

On April 23, 2008 the Women’s event was held in Kona, Hawaii, with teams from Hawaii and New Zealand competing.

The following 2 days were designated for the Men’s Competition with teams from Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Guam, Kona-Hawaii, and North Shore Oahu competing.
 
The competition was fierce. There were even some recognizable faces from the last World Championships in Portugal. For example, Ian Puckeridge from Australia and Frank Tsiou Fouc of Tahiti were competing.
 
Hawaii’s Women’s Team, consisting of Kimi Werner and Tanya Beirne, pulled off a decisive victory. However, the Hawaii Men’s teams did not fair quite as well. Australia and Tahiti enjoyed a seemingly insurmountable lead after the first day of competition, with the Kona Team in a distant third. It became apparent the visiting teams were top-caliber spearfishermen, and that Hawaii could not simply rely on the home field advantage.
 
The next day would require double the effort and a change of strategy by the Hawaii teams. However, in the end, Australia and Tahiti were able to hold on to their lead despite a strong first place finish by the North Shore Spearfishers Team on Day 2. Although, the Oahu team, consisting of Mark Healy, Marnie Balubar, Kapono Zukevich and Dave Wassel, were able to jump up to third place overall. This was quite an accomplishment considering the ground they needed to make up and the last minute illness of Dave Wassel. Event coordinators were scrambling until the final moments prior to the start of the tournament to find a replacement. Luckily Kona Diver Bruce Ayau was able to save the day.
 
Congratulations to all the participants!   Note: Next years event will be held in Australia.

Women’s Teams
Hawaii and New Zealand

Men’s Teams
Guam, Kona, Oahu, Tahiti, Australia and New Zealand

WOMENS CHAMPIONS Hawaii: Kimi Werner, Tanya Beirne

 

New Zealand: Jessica Whiddett, Shirl Dryden

 

Guam: James Borja, Ronald Laguana, Gerald Cuyler Perry, 

Jamie Sternadel. Captain: James Borja

 

Kona: Shay Motonaga, Mike Hatcher, Calvin Lai,

Hanalei Adric. Captain: Calvin Lai Sr.

 

Oahu: Mark Healy, Kapono Zukevich, Marnie Balubar,

Dave Wassel. Replacement- Bruce Ayau. Captain: Al Lagunte

 

Tahiti: Joel Drollet, Dell Lamartniere, Cyril Vignole,

Edgar Tahahe. Reserve- Frank Tsiou Fouc. Captain: Romuald Montagnon

 

MENS CHAMPIONS Australia: Ian Puckeridge, Paul Roso, Drew Fenney,

Adam Smith. Reserve- Ryan Schulter. Captain: Alastair MacNeil

 

New Zealand: Dwane Herbert, Peter Herbert, Ian Warnock,

Colin Smith. Reserve- Jeff Cookson. Captain Ed Aaron

RESULTS

Team	Day 1	Day 2	Final
1  Australia	100	88.98	188.98
2  Tahiti	95.11	78.2	173.31
3  North Shore, Oahu	57.23	100	157.23
4  New Zealand	61.01	89.13	150.14
5  Kona, Hawaii	69.44	68.85	138.29
6  Guam	46.83	52.6	99.43
Womens
1  Hawaii	100
2  New Zealand	41.7

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 3:40 am and is filed under Currents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.