Category Archives: Paddling

Vaka Taumako Project Awarded Grand Prize

The International Maritime Film Festival in Bucksport Maine recently awarded “We, the Voyagers” Parts 1 and 2 its Grand Prize for feature films.

These 2 films, each about 55 minutes long, were produced by the Pacific Traditions Society, headquartered on Kaua`i, to record the efforts of Taumako people in the Solomon Islands to preserve and teach their ancient voyaging culture.

Nga Taumako may be the only Polynesians who still know how to build and sail canoes like the ones their ancestors used to explore and colonize the Pacific.

Part 1, Our Vaka, documents the construction of these canoes, which, unlike Hokule’a and other modern replicas, incorporate only traditional plant materials.

Part 2, Our Moana, recounts a voyage and includes a section on some of the ancient navigational methods used by Taumako voyagers. Both films are available for viewing online at www.vaka.org . They are also accessible through the Vaka Taumako Facebook site .

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

Vaka Taumako Project Coming To Palace Theater 2020

This two-part film series features the living crew of Polynesian voyagers of Taumako, Solomon Islands, who share their history, motivations, and skills through storytelling, canoe building, and wayfinding.

They use only the designs, materials, and methods of their culture-hero Lata, who built the first voyaging canoe (vaka) and navigated to distant islands.

We invite everyone to see this film and reconnect with their ancestors and sustainable lifeways. This is a story of the real Moana. Each film is 57 minutes long and there will be a short intermission between the two screenings. The film is hosted by Dr. Marianne “Mimi” George, anthropologist, sailor, and writer specializing in voyaging cultures.

 

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

Film Series | We, the Voyagers: Lata’s Children

Announcing two screenings of our just completed film series, We, the Voyagers: Lata’s Children.

We are now welcoming invitations to screen the films at paddling and sailing events and for groups throughout Hawaii and world-wide. contact vakataumako@gmail.com, see vakataumako on Facebook and www.vaka.org.

UPDATE: On Thursday, 8 August, the Pacific Traditions Society will screen part 1 of the “We, the Voyagers” series. The show will begin at 6:00 pm at Kaua`i Community College’s Fine Arts Auditorium.  The following Thursday, 15 August, part 2 of the series will be shown at 6:30 pm. in the same facility. Both shows last about an hour, and are FREE and open to all. Try come!

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

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

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

Water Dance

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

Historical Sketch For Fitness Training

While collecting information on an exposé about Toots Minvielle’s life’s accomplishments I kept running across the dominant clubs, teams, and those that coached them throughout that time frame (1952-present).

Peter Caldwell did an excellent job of documenting the history of the Molokai races. Within that treasure trove is a collection of results of season-long training sessions.

The Outrigger Canoe Club Archives also has excellent historical articles about training regimes.

All of this history is the result of Toots taking the time to expand this sport internationally. A time line of when and how that came about is in the works.

  The IPCF (now IVF) historical records is filled with the who’s who of sprinting. This year finally the IVF has come up with the true Marathon event whereby a country is represented by one individual crew entry in a category per country. That pars down the finish podium to the best from each country unlike the major big races around the world. Mind you that IPCF/IVF had long distances events around and during their past World Sprints events beginning with the first event in 1984 in Long Beach, California.

  So getting back to the main object of the article, coaching and training styles. George “Dad” Center was Outrigger Canoe Club’s Captain (coach) from 1913-1942. During those years he trained some of the best swimmers, paddlers, and all around athletes. His accolades of training Olympic swimmers is historical. From him sprang a wealth of athletes that became coaches that went on to train other athletes.

  The concept of putting the time in with good training habits is easy to say, but in reality it takes the drive and sacrifices to maintain that habit in a team situation. In Hawaii weather is not a factor unless there is a tropical storm and then you can train inside. The water training workout is conducive to time on the water. In tropical waters, swell direction and air & water temperature have that advantage for year-round training. The teams in IVF today are starting to get that sense of dedication that it takes to knock off seconds in a 2000-meter or 5-mile run.

  In Tahiti in the early 80’s, Pirae’s Edward Maamaatua was given several K-1 and C-1 Olympic boats by the French national canoe team because of Tahiti’s athletes natural water competitiveness. From that meeting and gifts sprang forth their new designed canoes. Along with the designs a training format of working on technique, putting quality time in on the water, using varying strokes throughout the particular events was all taken in. Along with varied dry land training sessions they began to see better results. Put into that mix a benefactor of a sponsorship, you now have an excellent chance of getting the best paddlers to join your team. But when you have 40 of the top paddlers, how do you choose? It can come down to youth, desire, and/or talent. The competition calendar is also a factor. Tahiti has over 50 events in a year, and 2 months out of the year they don’t have races because of the rain factor. It’s simple math, you put more quality time as a team under racing conditions, you will finish in the upper brackets. Using the V-1 as an added training tool for conditioning puts individuals into team boats easier. Putting in a little incentive of money doesn’t hurt to sweeten the pot for working harder in the case of Tahiti.

  During Offshore Canoe Club’s run for the Molokai podium we gathered athletes that had credentials with impeccable training habits. It was nothing for anyone of them to do a hard water work out then go for a 40 mile bike ride to cool down. Each individual was an aquatic marathon workout-infused and dedicated true athlete, and like most clubs, when there is a change in leadership, so goes the crews.

  In Australia, the surf boat clubs were and are the basis for hard training regimes. Their cross training in aquatic themes is their basis for staying fit 365 days a year.

  In Hawaii, now there are teams that are concentrating on 365 day training. They are showing some improvement in knocking off the precious seconds and minutes at those events they enjoy going to. Some clubs are seriously looking towards their youth to carry on the quest for athletic dominance, which was also Dad and Toots themes also.

 There are now clubs, teams, trainers, clinics, and seminars accomplishing this desire to get faster longer. Did it spring from Dad Center’s coaching talents and his protégées or was it Toots who started to spread the sport first to California, then to England, France, Germany, and Australia? Toots and Bob Fisher, from Outrigger, did go to Tahiti in 1974 to discuss coming to Hawaii for competition. All of this history is usable as a coach or trainer, if they understand the concepts.

Hopefully this will give some insight to those clubs’ training now that working hard is just part of the formula of standing on that podium.

 Bud Hohl

captions

“Dad” was the coach of many of the now legendary coaches and athletes, in Hawaii. This is from the book “Duke, the life story of Duke Kahanamoku” by Joseph Brennan. It shows Duke, the protegee and Dad Center, the coach, after coming home from an Olympic conquest.

This is Toots sitting on the very first fiberglass outrigger surf canoe built in 1954. He was a man before his time.

 

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