Outrigger Canoe Ride in Waikiki

Aloha,
Yes, I took 400 photos in Waikiki and yes, we're going to look at them all. I guess posting digital pictures online is the new millenium's version of our parent's slideshow. At Duke's Canoe Club you can rent an outrigger with a guide and you paddle out and catch waves.
According to the website:
http://www.dukeswaikiki.com/
"Duke's Waikiki is located right on the site of the original Outrigger Canoe Club, overlooking the spot where Duke rode the biggest wave of his life".

Wow, just like in the old classic travel ads.

So, Shelley and I went out with Bong and his family, just the activity for a TC outing.


"Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers". -Herman Melville

"For whatever we lose, It's always ourselves we find in the sea".-E.E. Cummings

"I lived on rum, I tell you. It's been meat and drink, and man and wife, to me".- Robert Louis Stevenson
Mahalo,
Al

[ Edited by: Alnshely 2007-12-02 20:57 ]

You guys are killing me. Very clever touch to the pic. I noticed. :wink:

Thank goodness someone else saw it too. I thought I was losin it for a minute :P

"I see" said the blind man. Barely, with my glasses.

Very funny Al! Caught that one too...

HA! That's funny! Looks like a blast was had!

Next time check out the outrigger in front of the Sheraton. Ask for Mad Dog. Don't let his name and looks fool you (he's only been 86ed out of almost every bar in Waikiki). Tell him Bamboo Ben sent you and you will get a good ride! And, if there's an older man on it with a Boston accent, that's Don, my father-in-law.

Thanks for the photos, Al!

One of the best things about being on an Outrigger Canoe team was the joy of riding big wave at the end of a race or the end of a day's practice.

I was steersman (the man in the back of the canoe) for team Lanakila out of Redondo Beach for a few years. It was quite an experience. I've never seen so many Olympic-class atheletes who were also alcoholics in one place before. These men and women knew how to party and how to work and play hard. Three hours of practice every evening, a race on Saturday, and then a huge beer-soaked luau at the end of every race. Sometimes we got Sundays off, but usually we had to run 6 to 8 miles for time.

At the end of a long evening practice, with the sun setting to the West, we would paddle the canoe up to the breakwall at the entrance of King Harbor and wait for a really big swell to roll in. As the wall of water rose behind us, I would give the command for my team to paddle and we would all dig in with every ounce of strength we had left. It was my job to keep the canoe perfectly perpendicular to the wave as it caught us. A little slanted to the right or left and the wave would turn the canoe completely sideways and the whole thing would roll over, dumping us into the ocean and possibly breaking the outrigger. This happens to every new steersman at least once until he gets control over his canoe. But when you mastered the trick, it was one of the most exhilarating experiences - roaring down the wave like a locomotive, all of us howling at the top of our lungs as we soared into the harbor.

Beach races were tricky, because we had to launch into the pounding surf, but the bonus was that you got to ride a wave onto the beach at the end of the race.

It was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything in the world, even though I had no social life at the time, outside of the canoe team. The final race of the season was from Catalina Island to Newport Beach. It took just over 5 hours. I wish they would make Outrigger Canoeing an Olympic sport - it really deserves it.

Sabu

On 2004-04-16 13:45, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:

I was steersman (the man in the back of the canoe) for team Lanakila out of Redondo Beach for a few years. It was quite an experience. I've never seen so many Olympic-class atheletes who were also alcoholics in one place before. These men and women knew how to party and how to work and play hard. Three hours of practice every evening, a race on Saturday, and then a huge beer-soaked luau at the end of every race. Sometimes we got Sundays off, but usually we had to run 6 to 8 miles for time.
Sabu

Very studly.

Fort Lauderdale has an outrigger canoe club... They have 2 oc-6 that they race right across from the hotel for Hukilau...

just thought I would share...