"Hui Wa'a Kaukahi" is Hawaiian for a group or association of single (solo) canoes, and is pronounced HUU-ee VAH-ah kow-KAH-hee. It's okay if you find it difficult to say - several of our longtime members seem to have difficulty pronouncing it as well (but we're not going to change it).
A Brief History: In the early 1980s, author and pioneer
kayaker Audrey Sutherland began teaching courses in ocean
kayaking at the University of Hawaii's School of Continuing Education
(adult ed). Many of her former students bought inflatable kayaks
and continued to call each other for weekend paddles long after
"graduation," and finally decided to get organized.
The first meeting was in the UH Lecture Hall in May, 1982, when
Mark Rognstad was elected first president (he thought of the name,
it's his fault), and we continued to meet at UH until they discovered
that nobody was still actually a paying student there, and we
had to move on. After a brief stint at the Liliha Library, we
met for many years at the Second Floor at the notorious Anna Bannana's
Bar, until our move to our present digs at Church Of The Crossroads
in 1995. We still have four or five members who were at that first meeting,
including Audrey, who was the special speaker at our 20th Anniversary
party.
Members: Our members range from students (real ones) to
professors, fishermen, architects, surfers, lawyers, carpenters,
and a few old retired fuddy-duddies that can still show us how
it's done. Our youngest member presently is 18 or 19, and the
age (and identity) of our oldest member is a closely-held secret.
Probably late 70s. Our youngest active member to date was 12 years
old and one couple took their 6-month-old daughter on day paddles
with regularity. Members have brought back slide shows of their
adventures kayaking in Fiji, Tahiti, Alaska, New Hampshire, Ireland,
Chile and Italy. We have a few members who are in military service,
and a couple of out-of-state residents who seem to like to spend
their winters kayaking in Hawaii rather than shovelling snow in
Canada or whereever (well, duh!).
The Club has one regularly scheduled meeting each month, and a day paddle on Oahu every week or two. We also publish a more or less quarterly newsletter The Lifeline, several excerpts of which are reprinted on this site, and we organize several three- to eight-day camping paddles on the "outer" islands each year. We also have a two-day campout/party/ocean egg-hunt at Easter, three fishing competitions, one kayak surfing contest, a kayak sailing race, and a pigout Christmas party at the end of the year. Pretty busy all year long. We also do kayak carolling and a couple of nighttime (full moon) paddles.
Most of the paddles are 7 to 10 miles long, but we also have
beginner's "E Z Gliders" paddles and casual paddles
of 1 to 2 miles. Only ocassionally do we have grinders of more
than 10 miles, such as the "Big Kahuna" in Kaneohe (12
miles).
The difficulty of each individual paddle depends almost entirely
on the weather each day. (See Paddle Ratings).
We schedule our outings around to different shores at different
times of the year to avoid direct exposure to rough or windy conditions,
but Island weather is notoriously changable, and sometimes we
guess wrong.
This is important: It is up to each paddler to assess the conditions
on the day of the paddle in light of their own experience and
ability, and make their own decision about launching! Before launching,
each paddler must sign our printed waiver
and agree to this. If there is a Small Craft Advisory or higher
in effect (Nat'l. Weather Serv. - VHF Channel 1 or 2), the event
is Officially Cancelled.
Each trip will have a Trip Leader designated, who is the contact person for information about the paddle, such as meeting times and places, car pools, etc. and may or may not actually be out in front leading. The Trip Leader is always a paddler who has done the trip before, but he or she is not your Mommy- each paddler is responsible for his or her self (see paragraph above).
Since our beginnings were as a club for inflatables (easier
to carry on inter-island planes, y'know), many of the members
started with, and continue to use Seyvelors, Semperits, Metzelers,
and the new Aires. Don't see Kleppers, Feathercraft or Folboats
too often.
With the development of reliable polyethylene designs in the last
ten years, however, many members have switched to sit-on-top boats
by Wave Witch, Aquaterra and Wilderness Systems, but the majority
seem to have Ocean Kayaks products, the Scupper Pro model being
the overwhelming favorite, followed by the two-seat Malibu and
the wave-riding Scrambler.
Although a few members have them, the "traditional"
sit-inside fiberglass boats are not very popular in Hawaii because
of the danger of damage on rock landings. Fiberglass sit-on-tops
(surfskis) are the craft of choice with the ocean racing crowd,
but our members usually opt for the polyethylene (rotomolded)
boats with cargo capability rather than speed.
We meet on the third Tuesday of each month, in Meeting Room 1 at the Church of the Crossroads, at 7:00 PM. The address is officially on University Avenue, but the meeting room is actually next to the public parking lot at the corner of Kaialiu and Bingham Streets, behind the Varsity Theater. The December meeting is our Christmas Party and is held somewhere else, announced in The Lifeline.
The first part of each meeting is taken up with Club business - discussion of past paddles, upcoming events and ongoing issues - for about 45 mins. Afterwards, there is a scheduled presentation, often a member's slide show of a recent camping paddle or excursion, but sometimes a guest speaker. Past meetings have featured archeologists, anthropologists and icthyologists, politicians, kayak manufacturers, authors and professional shark hunters. The only criteria are Hawaii (or the Pacific), the ocean and/or kayaks.
At this time, we do not have on-line registration, however, there is a PDF version of the application form (near the bottom of the Index Page, and also on the Lifeline page) that can be sent in with your check for a new or renewing membership. We are not actively recruiting non-resident members (although we have a few), but if you're in Hawaii (on Oahu), or live here, even part of the year, we do encourage you to attend our monthly meetings, meet the other members, and if still so inclined, join at that time. If you live on one of the neighbor islands, write to us at: PO box 11588, Honolulu, HI 96828.
A 12-month membership is $41 for a single person, and $53 for
two people at the same address. There is a printable membership
form on the site that you can mail in, or bring it to one of
the General Meetings.
The difference between the two prices on the form is this: joining
the Club at the lower price simply enrolls you as a Club member, meaning that you are not a member of the American Canoe Association (ACA) and are thus not covered by their required insurance. In order to actually join one of the paddles, you will be assessed a $10 per-person per-event fee. Possibly if you are uncertain about kayaking as a new pursuit, this would be a slightly cheaper way to go. However, if you find you DO like the sport, it could get very expensive very quickly, so we recommend you
spend the extra $21 and become an individual ("active")
member of ACA, which also extends their insurance to cover your "other"
(non-club) paddling as well as your other outdoor activities - AND you get a subscription to their monthly Paddler
Magazine.
You can also join by filling out an application at Go Bananas
Kayaks at 799 Kapahulu Ave in Honolulu, or at their branch at
98-390 Kamehameha Hwy in Aiea.
Do you have any commercial affiliations with kayak stores?
No. However, many of the staff, including the owner, of Go Bananas are
active members of Hui Wa'a Kaukahi, and the store has agreed to
be our unofficial contact point. They extend a discount to Club
members on purchases there.
The owner of Twogood Kayaks in Kailua is also a Club member, and
will offer a discount if you ask.