More About Paddling (behind the cut)

[kateelliott]

triciasullivan asks:
How did you get into this stuff? How are the teams formed?



Outrigger canoes are (as you know, Bob) indigenous to the Pacific Islands. They're particularly adapted to ocean swells, island wind conditions, and surf (yes, you can surf even in a big six seater outrigger canoe, cuz I have been there and done that and, yes, it is really really fun).

So paddling is a big deal here (indeed, it is Hawaii's Official Team Sport), both in clubs where people are racing in OC-6 (six seat canoes) and for plenty of people competitively and recreationally paddling OC-1s and OC-2s (single and double seated outrigger canoes).

There are at least 35 paddling clubs on Oahu alone, ranging from very small groups where everyone who comes gets a seat in a race to really huge clubs of 500 paddlers where every paddler competes for seats in the racing crews. These clubs are divided into two canoe associations: Na 'Ohana O Na Hui Wa'a (the association my club, Manu O Ke Kai, belongs to) and OHCRA.

There are several seasons: an unofficial "pre-season" with semi-long distance races; the regatta season, which is more or less short distance speed racing; and the long distance season, which always ends in October with the world famous and probably most prestigious outrigger canoe race in the world, the Molokai Hoe (Molokai-to-Oahu); there's a women's race one weekend and a men's race a different weekend.

This, again, refers to OC-6 racing only. There's an entire different circuit of OC-1 and OC-2 racing which I know little about, only that the top people in the racing circuit are pretty phenomenal paddlers.

How long canoe clubs have been around I don't know--obviously people have been paddling canoes here since, well, since Polynesians first arrived in the islands on Hokule'a style canoes. The racing associations have been around since the 1970s, in tandem I suspect with the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s.

So, if you want to paddle in an OC-6, you check online, or ask around, or go to the various places where clubs operate, and see if they're looking for new members. In my association, Hui Wa'a, most of the clubs are certainly looking for new members because of the way the racing levels are set up (as I have explained elsewhere you are a Novice B your first season, a Novice A your second and third seasons, and then you move into the Open class; Masters is another category, although it isn't divided into Novice and Open but is divided up according to age: 40 (many people in their 40s are racing instead or in addition in the Open category); 50, 55, and 60.

That is, at the beginning of the regatta season (training generally starts in February), clubs need new members if they want to put together a Novice B crew. However, I should note that at the regatta, with almost 40 different races, no club enters a crew in every single race (well, maybe one or two of the huge clubs does). It's more a matter of building new paddlers over several years to maintain your club's overall strength.

How did I get into it?

That's a shorter story, which I'll tell asap.