It's all for one and one for all among the Maui County Hawaiian Canoe Association clubs participating at Saturday's state regatta at Ke'ehi Lagoon.

Kihei Canoe Club coach Rob Phillips, whose team finished in second place overall this season, enjoys seeing the unity of the Maui clubs as they go to the state regatta.

Their performance when they get there isn't half bad, either.

''It's so powerful considering the demographics — we deal with 100,000 for our population, they deal with 1.2 million — and as you see from history, some years, Maui wins one, two, three in the Division-AAA, Division-AA, Division-A, so the quality of the paddlers on Maui are obviously very outstanding,'' Phillips explained to The Maui News.

''We truly do go over there as Team Maui — it's not us versus our other clubs, we are one team, we share the same tents, share the same boats because we only have four koas going over there with eight clubs, so that is really nice to tighten everything up amongst ourselves and build up Team Maui.''

Kihei is sending 20 crews and will compete in the AAA Division. Their 20 crews are the maximum allowed in AAA — Kihei qualified 15 and purchased an additional five lanes.

''You've got to have close to the maximum number of lanes in there to place and hopefully we can try to win the Division-AAA,'' Phillips said.

Kai Opua of the Moku O Hawai'i Outrigger Canoe Racing Association also qualified 20 crews, while Puna and Hanalei each will send 19. The Waikiki Beach Boys, Koa Kai and Alapa Hoe round out the AAA field.

But even as Kihei finishes preparations for this weekend, it's also necessary to prepare for the impending distance season.

''Really, right now, at this point, we're starting to have to look ahead to our distance season, which is the week after states,'' Phillips said. ''We still have the focus of states, but we also have the training right now in moving towards those distance races.

''We don't have much time after we go to states.''

Two Maui clubs — Kahana and Lae Ula O Kai — will compete in AA after each qualified 12 crews. They'll join 11 other clubs who are also competing in the division.

Wailea, which had approximately 75 club members last season, nearly doubled their group this year and will send two additional crews to the regatta's A Division this year. The division, which includes clubs sending a maximum of six crews, also includes Na Kai Ewalu, Napili and Hana. There are a total of 34 crews in the division.

''It was a big jump for us — we didn't expect to double the numbers,'' said Wailea coach Kapena Whitford.

''We actually have four crews that have qualified — 13 boys, freshmen men, novice B mix and novice B women.''

It's the first time the club has sent a men's team in two years, Whitford said.

''This will be the first time we'll have an open men's team and we like our chances, hopefully we can be in the middle rounds in the men's race, that's what we're kind of hoping will happen,'' he said. ''We kind of had a small group that came back, some new paddlers, kind of a mix of both (for the men). When you're out of the loop for a while, it takes a whole year to get back in and hopefully you can become competitive the next season if you stick around.''

Regardless of the outcome, Whitford is pleased with the way things are heading for the club.

''You never know on these things, because on O'ahu there are a lot of strong clubs ... any time you get a medal at the state race, that's a big accomplishment,'' Whitford said. ''Last year we only had two crews and this year we have four, so we're kind of happy about that.

''We'll see what happens. You kind of want to double-up every year, but we'll just take it a year at a time.''