The Kahuna and the boys are back

Eleven months after hosting triathletes from around the world in what they term as the Jewel in the XTERRA crown, Dave Nicholas, Chris Appleton, Ted Kozlo, and company from Team Unlimited have returned the kick off the new season of premier off-road challenges with the 2006 XTERRA Saipan Championship.

Though they only landed on Saipan late Monday evening, Paul Ehman, Tyson Pualoa, Kolani Hano Hano, John Alejado, Brian Francis, and Pride of Nebraska Kirk Ermels were on hand at the American Memorial Park hammering the stakes, lining the fences, and raising the tents.

Before the crew called it quits for the day they had the AMP looking more like the place to be come this Saturday when all of the feisty finishers take their final steps along the beach before crossing the famed archway at the finish.

Today most of the team will finish tuning up the pivotal transition point at Micro Beach, while the “Big Kahuna” Nicholas will grab a couple of his guys to start marking the bike and run course with arrows to ensure that the athletes get the full value of their XTERRA experience.

Though he was only on-island for a handful of hours, Nicolas explained how happy he and his team are to come back to Saipan.

“We always love coming here. You don’t understand what a cool place you actually live in. I think the best thing is that it’s almost totally natural and it’s the people. Every year it just gets better and better. That’s all there is to it,” he said.

Nicolas said that he is also happy to see the progress that the local race has experienced over the past few years and said that the XTERRA Saipan Championship is poised to get even bigger in the years to come.

“It’s healthy as can be. Any time it grows you have to be happy. You have to consider that Saipan is not an easy place to get to. To see the growth happen here where the population stays relatively the same means that people are traveling here. I just wish there were a few more flights and that it was a little easier to get here,” he said.

While the Maui-based crew will be putting the finishing touches on the course throughout the week, they received local assistance from members of the Northern Marianas Islands Triathlon Federation and the Department of Public Works who have labored to reopen the trails and to clear away things from the trail like fallen trees, coconuts, and large rocks.

With the production of the television program that chronicles both the off-road challenge and the Tagaman Triathlon, the folks at Team Unlimited have provided the world with another opportunity to see what Saipan has to offer, and Nicholas explained that XTERRA is in the CNMI due to the efforts of the Marianas Visitors Authority years before the first triathletes set foot into the waters along Micro Beach.

The jewel begins at 8am this Saturday along the waters of Micro Beach, as over 120 triathletes don their swim caps to kick off the fourth edition of the XTERRA Saipan Championship.