Talking about the head count thing got me thinking about when I started paddling. It was on a small lake in New England in one of those Coleman canoes. I immediately fell in love with that smooth, gliding sensation. Luckily for me, my family moved to Hawai'i shortly thereafter where I began paddling outriggers. In my experience, I knew right away that I wanted to paddle forever, and I'm sure many of you felt the same way. Anyone else got a story about when they first caught da fevah?
Submitted by Jim on Fri, 06/15/2007 - 4:05am
I took at kayak class at age 40. The gal that taught me to kayak asked me if I wanted to try OC6 with the Mid-Atlantic Paddlers Association. I jumped in and loved it. Next thing I knew I was paddling marathon and outrigger canoes. I can't stop buying canoes. Is there a cure?
#1 Fri, 06/15/2007 - 4:57am
i am an argentinian surfer who once made his dream come true, surf the north shore of Oahu. That dream lasted 7 years, but the reason wasnt really surfing, was Hawaiian style paddling, i joined Manu o ke Kai Canoe club and since the very first time i knew was for ever, i consider myself honered to be part of this ancient tradition wich has nothing to do with individualism and most of things that rules nowdays, this sport changed mylife on a super positive way, now is growing here in ARGENTINA and is changing the life of a lot of people here.
imua Manu o ke kai!!!
#2 Fri, 06/15/2007 - 7:11am
I moved to Hawaii, where my father grew up, when I was almost 40 yeras old. My neighbor encouraged me to come down to his club and give paddling a try. I had never done much regular excercise nor had I participated in any group sports before. I had no idea how I would feel about paddling but my reaction was immediate. From the first time I got in the canoe I was hooked. It was an instantaneous bond that I had with the sport, the water, the canoe, and especially my club, which, by the way, also happens to be Manu O Ke Kai. I have learned so much about paddling from Uncle Randy and so much about being a better person too.Today, I am a self proclaimed paddling junkie...ready to do 6 man, long distance, OC-1 or OC2.
#3 Wed, 06/20/2007 - 9:26pm
imua Randy!!!
imua Manu!!!!!
#4 Thu, 06/21/2007 - 5:03am
I started paddling Dragon Boat which is bigtime here in Toronto, Canada over 15 years ago. I was involved with a top team here at the time that we developed from a bunch of non-paddlers originally and our coach, an accomplished paddler got us into paddling OC to supplement our training. Loved paddling OC6 and OC1 right off the bat. The freedom in open water and the natural balanced paddle stroke was awesome.
The whole Aloha and Ohana spirit and culture of this sport is a refreshing experience and quite different than the typicall North American purely Sport-centric or Competitive sport culture (not to say that paddling OC is not competitive ;-))
Haven't looked back since. Buying and trying new OCs and travelling to Hawaii and the US every year to meet wonderful people involved with the sport since.
Aloha
#5 Thu, 06/21/2007 - 7:15am