Kayaking has always been a fluid activity for me. You can paddle the same route hundreds of times, and there is always something different about each paddle. If you have been paddling for a while, you have been to Kapapa Island in Kaneohe several times. Most of the time you are have the whole island to yourself, a chance to escape the urban sprawl of Honolulu. On other occasions you may have a visit by an occasional Tako fisherman, but that is the extent of most human contact. The island is the nearest thing to a kayaker's sanctuary that we have in Hawaii, that is until this past Thursday.
It was a beautiful day, as the weather report was calling for moderate Trade Winds, and sunny conditions, just right for a paddle to Kapapa Island, and then if I was lucky a kite run back to He'eia. I had done it "hundreds" of times in worse conditions, so I put my autopilot on and paddled towards my sanctuary. It was a low tide and I paddled towards the southern point of Ahu o Laka, the sandbar so that I wouldn't have to hike over the presently flat and wide shelf. There were the jet skis and the banana tow boats speeding around near the south point carrying screaming tourist on their "Eco-adventure", all I could think about was, "Where are those Van-Cams when you really need them?" Paddling around the point, I aimed toward Kapapa and paddled on. About a half a mile from the island, I saw a rooster tail spraying in the waves on the south side of the Kapapa. "Oh oh! The jet skis were around my island!" I thought with revulsion. As I neared the island, I saw that there were two people standing on the lawn on the Lee of Kapapa, and there were actually two jet skis "patrolling" the waters about the island. To the left was a Cobra Tandem with two men and a boy also heading towards Kapapa. This was really an unusual day! The Tandem was ahead of me and I saw one of the jet skis approach the kayak and there was a discussion that went on. The Tandem paddled on and the Jet Ski started towards me. What could he possibly want to tell me? In the past a Jet Ski usually brought warnings about something bad, could it have been a large shark sighting in the area? Maybe, the police found another dead body on the island! I was about to find out. The guy that was riding, the Jet Ski rode over with a big grin on his face, which usually means trouble. "I just want to tell you that there is a photo shoot happening on the island." Photoshoot, hmm that sounds good to me, as most of the Hui knows I love to take pictures, maybe I could get some pointers. "It's your island too, so you can go ahead but I hope we don't offend you." I thought that was an unusual statement as I shook my head and paddled towards the islet. "By the way, who's doing the photoshoot?" I asked curiously. "Playboy… I hope that doesn't offend you!" "Not at all!" I replied trying to be courteous. As I approached the island, the big lawn had bags of cameras, and the Tandem had already landed and the three paddlers were walking around the islet. The two figures that I saw walking around from a distance looked a lot like Gary and Rusty looking nervous as I approached.
When I landed, I pulled my kayak up the coral beach on the Mauka side, and immediately began my ritualistic clockwise walk around Kapapa, just waiting to see what surprises lay around the corner. As I turned the Kualoa side of the island one of the photographers immediately approached me, with a digital camcorder in hand. "Hi! How you doin! My name is Mike. What's yours?" He immediately asks me if the little boy was my son. "We really don't want to shock him, you see we are doing a pictorial for Playboy." I assured him that he wasn't my son and that I came alone, which Mike found somewhat surprising for some strange reason. "Well, it's about this private island and…" I finally got the picture and I told him that if I got in the way just wave me off and I'll move away. That seemed to pacify him as he walked away with a smile. That wasn't the case for the two blonde models in G-strings who didn't look at all amused. In fact, I could have sworn that instead of the "Come hither look" you see in those pictorials, they were giving me the "Go far away, so that we can get this over with look." I obediently moved on in my ritualistic clockwise manner walking towards Moku Manu, occasionally glancing backwards, just in case Mike wanted me to get out of the picture. Soon it was time to shove off, and I thought I might see how the photoshoot was coming when the jet skier came up to me and told me that he was a guide for Playboy and that he took them all over the state, but this was the last stop. "I really didn't want to bring them here because this place is like sanctuary yeah?" He apologized. " That's OK" I told him as I shoved off. Meanwhile over on the makai side, I heard Mike clapping and telling the models, "That was great!" Dream on.
(c) 2003 Hui Waa Kaukahi