Determined women crossed the Molokai Canal

“When you give a woman a paddle, you give her something to dream about.

If you give a woman a paddle, she gets in a canoe.

Give a woman a paddle and she will do the Ka’iwi Canal.

Give a woman a paddle and she will join her sisters as Na Wahine O Ke Kai.”

— The late Rell Sunn, race day, 1996

Wwhy? Why not?

It wasn’t so much a question of if women could do it, but more of a question of when. Na Wahine O Ke Kai, the women’s outrigger canoe race between Molokai and Oahu, had long been a dream of female paddlers, serious discussion beginning in 1954, just two years after the first men’s Molokai Hoe.

But in fact, there have been many questions about women’s ability to complete today’s 40.8-mile traverse (the distance standardized in 1979). Male paddlers openly said the canal was not a place for women. The Coast Guard advised against it.

As the late Star-Bulletin outdoor writer Jack Wyatt wrote in 1979, just before the first issue of Na Wahine O Ke Kai: “Give women a little liberty, the right to vote, recognition in some sports, and what happens? The assault on one of the last human bastions in Hawaii, the outrigger canoe ride across the Molokai Channel.”

That bastion fell days later, on October 14th.

Or, as Puna Kalama Dawson, a key race organizer and trainer at Lanikai Canoe Club, said after successfully crossing, “The men can no longer blame us for owning the Molokai Canal.”

And so it came to gender equality in the World Outrigger Paddling Championships for women and men.

The foundations – or rather the waterworks – were laid in 1954 by the later long-time race director Hannie Anderson. The 20-year-old, Vi Makua and La Abbey – members of the senior women’s regatta crew for the dominant Waikiki Surf Club – found someone to take them across the channel to see what the men’s race was all about (code for “spy on” ). ).

Because of breaking waves in Kawakiu Bay, their boat couldn’t land, but the trio accepted a ride from Duke Kahanamoku, who happened to be passing by in his smaller ship. The conditions were too harsh for even Hawaii’s largest water man to bring them to shore and tell the women they had to swim in it.

The “drowned rats” weren’t even greeted by their own surf club coach, Wally Froiseth. But when Anderson learned that entertainment was part of the pre-race agenda, he hula danced under the lights strung across the campsite.

The next hula was performed in 1975 when two crews of 18 women each – from the Healani Canoe Club and Onipa’a, consisting of paddlers from Kailua, Lanikai, Outrigger and Surf Club – conducted a test run to prove it was possible. According to an account in Peter Caldwell’s book Molokai-Oahu through the Years, men first jumped into the escort boats to help the women change the water. This didn’t sit well with some paddlers who said they were perfectly capable of getting back in the canoe on their own.”

Healani was the first to cross in 7 hours and 15 minutes, followed shortly thereafter by Onipa’a.

The consensus? Eighteen was too much and let’s go next year.

It didn’t happen until 1979, a combination of determination and organization. The meticulously kept record documents the latter, with an ambitious agenda wedged between the opening invocation and the closing prayer.

The organizers knew they would need help—divine and otherwise. Leilani “Lei” Faria, the first female president of the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, was a vocal advocate of women’s canal racing, but when her health deteriorated, she turned the paddle over to Carlene Ornellas of the Kailua Canoe Club.

Ornellas was part of the 1975 crossing — “There was no doubt we could do it,” said the 1971 Kailua High graduate. “We didn’t think about the potential danger. We just wanted to do it.

“Growing up in Kailua, there were no organized sports for us (girls) other than paddling. But the regatta was limited to four races for the women, starting with Novice (no youth categories like the boys). We had to push to give ourselves a distance season.

“What it did (for women) was create camaraderie between clubs. Yes, they’re cliques, but then we must be good friends.”

Although Ornellas did not compete in the first race in 1979, she left a legacy back then. She was eight months pregnant in October, and a no-pregnancy rule still applies in Na Wahine O Ke Kai.

“There probably shouldn’t be a rule now, but back then it was about safety, liability and oh my god being out there (in the canal),” she said. “And the potential of what could happen.

“Now we’re more educated.”

This training was part of the fundraising process, which saw the steering committee look for sponsors, sell t-shirts and bumper stickers, and host a Paddle-A-Thon in Kailua Bay.

It was a 1/8 mile course, with canoes turning on a buoy and then turning back, with a minimum of 10 laps per crew. People have pledged 25 cents a lap and “it raised money, raised awareness and raised eyebrows,” said Kathy Foti, who co-organized “the spectacle” with Dawson and Amy Best Crews.

“We did everything,” Crews said. “We collected the donations, screen-printed the pareaus, the flags for the official boats. For the 25th anniversary, I raised one of the officers’ flags on my escort boat.

“It wasn’t just why anymore, but why not? Why couldn’t we do it? Why SHOULD we NOT do it?”

There was a lot of flotsam and flotsam in the way. The men’s race was sponsored by Aloha Week of Hawaii, Inc., and when Aloha Week was moved from September to October in 1979, the women’s race almost never took place because conditions were decidedly more treacherous later in the year.

“It’s in the record,” Crew said. “‘To be considered by the Racing Rules Committee — men helmsmen.’ Maybe we’ve thought about it…”

If so, was it short.

Very short.

There were other changes too: setting the age limit at 18, reducing the required number of paddlers from 12 to 10, adding more age groups.

There were other challenges. In 1980 and 2015, the race was canceled due to 25- to 30-foot surf and high winds. COVID-19 protocols and concerns have canceled the last three, including the one scheduled for this September.

Na Wahine O Ke Kai, so christened by Dawson in 1979, has grown from 17 crews in its founding year to a peak of 79 in 2003 (compared to 71 in 2019, the last time). Team Bradley won in 6 hours, 27 minutes; Outrigger’s winning time in 1979 was 6:35:14.

The race will take place again in 2023, organizers said. And such will be the spirit that Anderson has brought with him since 1979.

When asked in 1986 how she had kept the dream alive in the 30 years prior to the realization of the race, she said, “I’m not giving up easily.”