Category Archives: Featured

Featured, Lifestyle, Outrigger canoe, Tahiti Paddling

Va’a Foundation

The Tahitian delegates at the annual IVF Congress (May, July, 2019)- Alfred MATA, Vetea SANFORD- presented the exciting project : VA’A FOUNDATION.

The target focuses upon the worldwide multiple cultural values conveyed over the centuries throughout the vast Pacific Ocean civilizations.

The sports people along with the nations’ leaders will hopefully follow up the surf and attain the shore of the UNESCO for a long expected recognition after the TAPUTAPUATEA MARAE, in the Leward Islands.

Les délégations tahitiens au Congrès annuel de la Fédération Internationale de Va’a (Mai, Juillet 2019)Alfred MATA, Vetea SANFORD- ont présenté la FONDATION du VA’A.

La cible concentre les multiples valeurs culturelles séculaires dispensées au travers des civilisations de l’immense Océan Pacifique.

Les sportifs du va’a avec les dirigeants des nations prendront la vague, espérons-le, pour atteindre les rivages de l’UNESCO, pour une reconnaissance longtemps souhaitée après celle du MARAE de TAPUTAPUATEA aux Iles-sous-le-Ventent.

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Outrigger canoe, Outrigger Race, Southern California

2019 Whitey Harrison 9-man Outrigger Race, Dana Point, CA

The Whitey Harrison Classic is a 20-Mile, 9-Man Outrigger race hosted by Dana Outrigger every August. The race was first run in July of 1971 from Newport to Dana Point Harbor as part of the Harbor’s Opening Ceremonies. Now approaching its 46th Annual, the race now runs from just outside the mouth of Dana Point Harbor to Main Beach in Laguna and back.

The Whitey Harrison Classic

http://www.imuaoutrigger.com/

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, New Zealand Paddling, Outrigger canoe, Paddling

Vaka Taumako Project Update

Vaka Taumako Project members have recently shown the video “We, the Voyagers: Part 1, Our Vaka” to enthusiastic audiences in Hawai`i, California, British Columbia, Washington state, and New Zealand.

This production, the first in a three-part series, features two people from Taumako island in the eastern Solomon Islands telling how their Polynesian community has worked to preserve and teach its ancestral knowledge of canoe building and sailing.

The second part will tell the story of a voyage to a neighboring island, and use this voyage to illustrate traditional navigation methods, methods which most people in other parts of the Pacific have long forgotten.

Principal investigator Dr. Marianne George and VTP Secretary Heu`ionalani Meph Wyeth will be hosting video showings on the US Mainland and in Hawai`i during September and October.

For information on schedules, and to request other presentations, please check the website www.vaka.org , or Vaka Taumako on Facebook.

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Outrigger canoe, Pacific Northwest Paddling, Paddling

There Is Something in the Water

By Shannon Gerritzen

What is it that draws us to the water? Is it your friends or ‘Ohana (family)? Is it because it refuels us?

Is there some primal connection that makes us keep returning to the water? Whatever it is, or combination of many things, there is something in the water.

Outrigger paddling for many feeds the need to be on the water. While the temperatures aren’t quite the same as Hawaii, or even California, that hasn’t stopped those in the Pacific Northwest from becoming a crew of six that paddles as one.

With 18 clubs in the Pacific Northwest Outrigger Canoe Association (PNWORCA), 10 clubs in Washington and 8 in Oregon, there is a place for everyone in a canoe.

PNWORCA recently closed out their 2018 OC6 racing season with the Pacific Northwest Outrigger Challenge on Saturday, August 25th at Sand Point on Lake Washington. The weather wasn’t typical of what we have come to expect in Washington at this time of year, long warm days with plenty of blue skies, but we greeted grey skies with smiles and paddles at the ready. More than 200 paddlers from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia joined in the day’s festivities.

Kikaha O Ke Kai Outrigger Canoe Club of Tacoma, WA and Sand Point Outrigger Canoe Club of Seattle, WA joined forces again for the fourteenth year to make the event successful. The Pacific Northwest Outrigger Challenge consists of a variety of events: 18-mile Iron, 20-mile Beach Changeout, and a 26-mile 9-Man Changeout, starting en masse around swimming dogs from a nearby dog park, continuing under two bridges and around Mercer Island. This race included 26 crews from16 racing teams, making this the premiere changeout race in the Pacific Northwest.

Many paddlers use this race as the last training stop before heading to the Queen Lili’uokalani Canoe Race, Catalina Crossing, Pailolo, and/or Molokai Ho’e. The course is long and challenging and allows each paddler to test their mental fortitude for distance and their endurance. Not to mention, the Pacific Northwest Outrigger Challenge is an excellent race to test gear, crew lineup, perfect water change methods, and more. The results from this year’s race can be found here: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=148537. We hope to see you in the PNW next August for the 15th Pacific Northwest Outrigger Challenge. Until then, Imua!

For more information on –
Kikaha O Ke Kai Outrigger Canoe Club visit: http://kikaha.com
Sand Point Outrigger Canoe Club visit: http://www.sandpointpaddlingclub.com/Outrigger%20Canoeing/

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Hawaiian Paddling, Outrigger canoe

The Slow “Lane”

It has been a very busy 2018 for natural disasters on the Hawaiian Islands so far. Flooding earlier in the year on Kauai and Oahu from severe winter storms, a volcano erupting for months on the big island and now hurricane Lane which was expected to whip out whatever was left here on the Hawaiian Islands.

The initial reports coming in the early week of August 19th-26th was to batten down the hatches and prepare for direct hit from the hurricane which looked like it covered almost the entire Pacific Ocean in one big circular cloud.

As the week progressed the storm path looked like it was going to drift north and run right over the island of Oahu and take out Honolulu. Since all reports from multiple resources forecasted that the storm would definitely impact Oahu, Kailua OCC and Outrigger OCC made the decisions to cancel this year’s Kailua bay challenge race and the Dad’s Center race. Which at the time, with such a disastrous forecast I really can’t blame them.

The hurricane rounded the big island of Hawaii and took aim at Oahu on Thursday 8/23 and then doing what no weather forecasters predicted it almost stopped moving forward and held off shore a hundred miles or so and just spun. Over the next couple of days hurricane Lane acted like a spinning tire on a car that was being blown apart and the hurricane broke off in several parts and branches and essentially just spun away. The land masses of the Hawaiian Islands seemed to trap it off shore to the north and east and our super hero trades or trade winds coming in from the southwest essentially cornered the front and then blew the top portion of the hurricane off.

Here in Kailua Oahu, we experienced some bouts of strong winds coupled with severe rain downpours but overall the storms earlier in 2018 were much worse. The OCC clubs here in Oahu along with the neighboring islands had all hands on moving canoes from the water front and securing canoes to anything that might not blow away or float away. After witnessing pictures of the damaged canoes from the north shore Kauai clubs after the severe flooding and destruction earlier in the year, local clubs made major accommodations to secure for the storm. When the weekend arrived the conditions out on the water off Kailua were actually not much worse than the typical Kailua Bay day. The hurricane fizzled down to just a typical summer storm.

As a mainland paddler, making the big decision to put together a crew, canoe logistics, registration, book travel, etc, etc, etc. is a huge gamble. If weather conditions change last minute when race weekend is upon us then this could turn out to be a huge waste of time and money.

Here are some tips on out of town race preparation:

  • Book all airfare and hotel accommodations with 100% refundable options if possible.
  • Attempt to arrive a couple of days, at the very least, prior to the race day. This helps to get your and your crew acclimated to the race waters and weather.
  • Always book to stay an extra day or two after the scheduled race date, in case the race director pushes the race date out a day to have better racing conditions.

-Joe Munro

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Canada Paddling, Featured, Outrigger canoe, Paddling

Water Dance

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Kahnawake, Canada on a First Nation Reserve -Louise Lahache

 

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Outrigger canoe, Pacific Paddler

A Note From Ropati

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Aloha:

I always look forward to putting another issue of Pacific Paddler together and touching bases with people I have meet over the years — looking for stories or adverting support. If you have a story idea please let me know. The next issue is the December/January edition. Would you be interested in supporting our mission?

The reason we started our magazine in 1996 was to promote a sport we loved, Outrigger Canoe Paddling. At the time the media wasn’t paying attention to our State Team Sport, all we had were results in the Sports Page. Even the Governor’s office back then didn’t know that Outrigger Canoe Paddling was the ‘Hawaii State Team Sport’. They found out when we helped them draft a congratulatory letter to the paddlers in the 1995 BANKOH Molokai Hoe Program.

Over the past two decades we have helped to make the sport grow around the World and with it our lifestyle, traditions and the meaning of Aloha. We have also helped islands in the Pacific get back into canoes and a rebirth of canoe traditions has begun. The only way we could do this was through the blessings and support of business’s like yours that appreciate the value of our sport and what it does for our community. Whether recreational or competitive, outrigger paddling is a healthy lifestyle for people of all ages. A big part of our focus is to get more kids paddling. Please help us continue to inspire the next generation of paddling enthusiasts, whether in an outrigger canoe, on a SUP, or surf ski.

The December 2017/January 2018 will include the Na Wahine and Molokai Hoe races and more. The December issue is always popular with our readers.

I hope you can help us continue to promote paddling and the culture that comes with it to an audience around the World.

Mahalo for your support,
Ropati Hebenstreit
Pacific Paddler magazine
808 351-2398

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Outrigger canoe, Pacific Paddler

Dive Deep Into An Abundant Sea Of Awesome Advertising Opportunities

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Paddle your way to profits!

Last year Water Sports enthusiasts spent $86 Billion dollars on their favorite recreational activity.

Roughly 140 million Americans make outdoor recreation a PRIORITY in their lives.

How would you like to reap the profits from targeting a niche that spends $86 billion?

Pacific Paddler Magazine (pacificpaddler.com ) can make that happen.

Pacific Paddler Magazine is  the online and offline destination of choice for avid Outrigger Paddling buffs.

Now is a great time to splashdown and start advertising to this dream demographic and niche.

Just think of the audience you can reach for your product with one of our affordable, budget-friendly advertising packages.

Just click to get started advertising with Pacific Paddler and take a deep dive into an abundant sea of profits.

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Outrigger canoe, Pacific Northwest Paddling

Preparing For Winter – Avoid Frozen & Damaged Canoe

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Have you ever wondered what the polar bear clubs endure?

We thought the canoe was a total loss. But we put a “jig” to reform the canoe and miraculously its shape came back.

Basically, the frozen water expanded like just like frozen water expands in a pipe which can force a pipe to burst. In our case, the fully rigged canoe kept the middle section, seats 3 and 4, tight and intact. So when the frozen water expanded, the gunwales and hull were forced to bend.
 
The picture of the upside-down canoe that’s straightened below is the fixed canoe. We thawed out the canoe and used large clamps to return it back to its normal shape. Originally we thought it was a total loss!
 
 
Lesson learned: check on canoes regularly and bailout rainwater. Use good canoe covers, if the canoe is not going to be used often – store it upside down to be safe.
Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com

Featured, Hawaiian Paddling, OC6, Outrigger canoe, Outrigger Race

Pacific Paddler, August, 2017 Vol 22.3

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This year I made a commitment to help coach the kids at our club and also to get back into the wa’a and race.

Our kids wanted to paddle and I wanted to be a part of that.

The last time I raced was about 13 years ago, so technically I could paddle Novice A.

Our young ‘Hammerheads’, Lahui O Ko’olauloa girls 12 and 13, waiting to race at the Waikiki Beach Boys Invitational
Lahui O Ko’olauloa

Instead of just taking photos, I was back in action and having a blast. I even forgot how old I was. Coaching is rewarding. Making sure our kids are having fun is key to getting them to try as hard as they can. Our young paddlers have been doing great. The crews that qualified for the HCRA States, held in Maui this year, are excited to compete amongst Hawaii’s best paddlers. To every paddler and coach who made it to the ‘States’, congratulations on your achievement. You’re representing the State’s best.

 

Pacific Paddler is A MAGAZINE FOR PADDLERS BY PADDLERS: to bring the excitement of outrigger paddling to a larger audience. Pacific Paddler covers all facets of paddling and outrigger racing including OC6, OC1, OC2, V1, O6, V6, OC4, SUP, Surfski, Canoe Surfing and more from all around the world! Our Focus is on paddling and the active lifestyle that goes with it. Paddling is a sport for everyone, any gender any age from 6 to 86. We want to encourage novice paddlers to join clubs and older paddlers to try it out.

http://pacificpaddler.com