Monday, September 13, 2010

Aloha Fest Comes to Boulder!

Anytime is a great time for Ohana ("Family" in Hawaiian) to congregate, and the local Hawaiian community will descend on Boulder, Colorado on September 18-19 to watch the Universities of Colorado and Hawai'i do battle on the football field. The "Warriors", or "Rainbow Warriors" as they have been known, have been playing football since 1921 and began playing a Division One-A schedule in the early seventies.

Football as we know it is a violent sport, though it's far tamer than it was at the beginning of the 20th century. President Theodore Roosevelt actually considered banning football from college campuses due to the many injuries and deaths of participants. Rule changes, including the forward pass and elimination of "wedge" blocking helped stem the carnage, and build the game we know today.

Football, however, has to take a back seat to the manly, and ancient, Hawaiian sport of "lava sledding." As described on www.mythichawaii.com, lava sledding means riding a steep, hardened lava field while atop a 12-foot board at speeds approaching fifty miles an hour. Something tells me the ancients didn't have helmet laws back then! Better to play a round of "Konane", a board game that sounds like a pastoral blend of checkers and chess.

Hope to see you at Aloha Fest, where I'll be emceeing Saturday's activities on the main stage. For more information, please see www.coloradoalohafest.com

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