The premier outrigger canoe race across the Kaiwi Channel from Molokaʻi to Oʻahu returns this weekend after several years on hiatus — the last one was held in 2019.
The tradition has lasted over 70 years, but race plans were scuttled in recent years due to the pandemic and then the Maui wildfires. This year, the men's Molokaʻi Hoe featuring 78 crews will start at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13.
HPR talked to Siana Austin Hunt, the vice president of the Oʻahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, about mounting the historic races across roughly 41 miles of ocean.
"It has been a battle of just, I think, really a lot of patience and bringing in many people to be able to help understand the realities that we face, some of the hurdles that included everything from transportation to renovation of the road down to Hale O Lono, to how do we move a thousand paddlers down a one-lane road in a very short window of time the morning of a race," Hunt said.
OHCRA also organizes the women's Nā Wāhine O Ke Kai, which Team Bradley won on Sept. 29.
She said OHCRA is grateful not only for all the help from around the world but also from the Molokaʻi community. Some residents have offered their backyards for crew camping.
"We've got island residents that are hosting, that are loaning cars, that are doing shuttle runs, that are offering Turos. We've got caterers that are offering food and making sandwiches. And it's really been a gathering of the community," she said. "It kind of harkens back to what the races were originally meant to be."
Paddlers have been making their way to the island via boats and airplanes.
"[Mokulele Airlines] are flying into the night to accommodate paddlers while working hard to not displace residents that also very much need travel to and from Molokaʻi," she said.
Hunt said that other smaller races throughout the year received some negative feedback about their impact on the community, so OHCRA created a pledge to inform paddlers how to be respectful guests while on Molokaʻi.
"We've really tried to remind our paddlers and our crews that they are being invited into Molokaʻi," she said.
Race planners have also instituted a 3-mile fishing buffer around the island to respect the community's request for safeguarding its fishing, she said. Crews can still fish in the channel.
"One of the additional pieces we committed to this year was, to just come back smart and careful, we capped the races at a smaller number of boats so that in one year we could kind of test this all out and not just inundate or put more pressure on limited resources than we're capable of handling," Hunt told HPR.
"We've celebrated this for years — generations. I grew up with my dad paddling Molokaʻi Hoe, and we used to go down and watch from the cliffs," she said.
The finish line is near the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikīkī on Oʻahu. There will also be a live broadcast starting at 7:30 a.m. through a partnership with Salt & Air Productions and KHON2.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 8, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
