Swen Weissenborn of the Doubletree Alana Waikiki Hotel volunteered to get a team together for the Ala Wai Challenge, a miniature makahiki-style competition being held this morning. The fun annual event on the mauka bank of the Ala Wai Canal gives tourists a chance to mingle with local people.

I asked Weissenborn how many visitors attend. "Not many know about it," he said.

"Have you posted the information in your hotel?" I said.

"No."

"Good grief, why not? The polls show that visitors want to meet locals."

"You know, that would be a good idea."

At the Waikiki Beach Mariott Resort & Spa, I asked the same question of room operations director Gerald Nakashima, who got a team together for his hotel. "You know, I don't believe we did anything," he said.

Candice Kraughto, public relations director at Sheraton Hotels in Waikiki, hadn't heard of the event but promised to let her guests know about it.

I'm writing this so the front desk can cut out this column and put it up this morning. Guests who read it before noon can get across the Ala Wai by canoe shuttle to attend the wildest Hawaiian free-for-all in town.

Legendary beach boy Nappy Napoleon is donating the canoes for the canoe shuttle. Starting near 'Olohana Street, the shuttle will take you across the canal to Ala Wai Park. You can walk from the canoe landing to where teams of all ages will engage in Hawaiian sports.

The Royal Hawaiian Band will be there. Hula dancers and chanters, too. Everybody is a volunteer. Nobody gets paid. It's all for fun, and to benefit the Waikiki Community Center, of which Jeff Apaka is director.

There will be outrigger canoe races, quarter-mile sprints. Some paddlers are veterans of many races, others, first-timers. Race director Mike Tongg, who has sailed on the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule'a all over the Pacific, sorts everybody out so nobody gets too much of an advantage.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society has a team. Nainoa Thompson will have a team. Employees from the hotels make up teams. Some have never held a canoe paddle.

Teams participate in four Hawaiian sports whether or not they've tried them before. One is 'ulu maika, Hawaiian bowling, in which players roll a stone disc at a mark. Another is moa pahe'e, which is like 'ulu maika, except that the players toss a wooden dart.

Next comes 'o'o ihe, spear-throwing. Instead of throwing spears at people, the players throw them at a bale of hay. Finally, we have pohaku ho'oikaika, the stone throw. The stone is round like a shot put.

This year, the Ala Wai Challenge is honoring Moku and Wally Froiseth, canoe-racing legends. The biggest names in Hawai'i water sports have been honored in the past.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.