Pacific Paddler magazine - October 2011 - (Page 30)

Watch out for Props my life. When I was twelve, I watched in awe The Moloka’i Hoe has repeatedly changed from the escort boat as my dad and the Kaiola Channel. I remember thinking, “This is what I Canoe Club senior masters raced across the Kaiwi want to do for the rest of my life.” Five years old about to leave Hawai’i for college, I stole later as a desperate and reckless seventeen year my brother’s ID card and switched to a canoe NEW BOOK ON VOYAGING that we don’t forget how dangerous it is out there. Shortly after my accident, a swimmer was hit and killed off of the Big Island. A couple of months ago, a diver off of Lana’i was hit and killed. Two days ago, a swimmer was hit in a life. These are not isolated accidents. They race off of Maui and is currently battling for his won’t stop until we do something about it. The next time it happens in the Moloka’i Hoe, somestanding by and letting it happen. body will probably die. And it will be our fault for There is no substitute for prop guards. I club that didn’t know my age. I did that channel thinking that I may never get the chance to race across again. But I came back. Repeatedly. I would fly home from college every year to race in the Moloka’i Hoe, the Moloka’i Relay, and the Channel. Moloka’i Solo. I couldn’t get enough of the Kaiwi What I learned over 20 crossings is that the understand that there are price and efficiency concerns, but they are irrelevant. Every boat in every relay race in Hawai’i needs a guard. Period. The organizers won’t do it if they feel there is community resistance. So we need to stand up together to make sure that it happens, but until that gets do to avoid accidents. race is never the same, and it’s nearly impossible to prepare for. Just when you think you have a good grasp of what’s coming, the channel changes. Which is what I’ve learned life is like also. At last year’s Moloka’i Hoe, I was poised to jump in on the edge of the boat waiting for the call to jump, I was confident in my knowledge of the for the first change off of La’au Point. Standing enforced, there are some basic things that we can Every team should have a simple change protocol in place. Maybe that protocol will vary depending on the team and their driver, but it ence level. An example could be: needs to be in neutral. needs to be followed regardless of the experi1) Before any paddlers jump in, the engine 2) A spotter, other than the captain, will channel, confident in my skill as a paddler, and confident in my physical fitness. Before every race start, I would visualize and attempt to embrace the pain that I knew was coming. I’m verify that the prop is disengaged and will give the call for each paddler to jump. 3) When every paddler has swum well clear sure that I had a smile on my face as I jumped in, thinking about the pain that was about to consume me for the next six hours of racing. But, idea what was coming. of the boat, the spotter will notify the captain that the prop can be engaged. 4) When picking up paddlers, the same as confident and knowledgeable as I felt, I had no To make the story short, I jumped in and process will be reversed. The captain will come within swimming distance of the paddlers and then disengage the prop. was run over. The prop hit me five times. It split my pelvis, severed the gluteal muscle in my right leg, and broke off three spinal processes. Through luck and the fast actions of my escort ics, the Moloka'i Fire Department, the Maui Air Ambulance, the surgeons, and the 3rd floor nurses at Maui Memorial Hospital, I lived. And disengaged, they will give the call to the paddlers to swim to the idling boat. It’s up to each of us to enforce that pro- 5) When the spotter verifies that the prop is driver, my team-mates, my coach, the paramed- tocol. Until the governing bodies sit down and figure out how they are going to make the race change, mandating prop guards, etc), it’s up now, with the support of my family, my friends, and the paddling community, I may have a full recovery. The prop was less than an inch from safer (making it an iron race, extending the first to each of us to do it for ourselves. More than ending my life or paralyzing me on nearly every pass it made through my body. But it didn’t. I can walk, I can paddle, and I’m alive. anything else, the paddlers, the coaches, and the drivers all need to be aware of the acute danger of propellers. Let’s work together as a community to make sure that nobody gets hit again. story. I’m writing this because it’s important But I’m not writing this to tell everyone my Luke Evslin For thousands of years before documented history chronicled the achievements of the great Asian and European seafaring explorers, the world’s largest geographical attribute, the Pacific Ocean, was being navigated, explored, and colonized by the intrepid and heroic peoples of the South Seas. For millennia, their migrations eastward and northward from their origins in Asia allowed them to discover and populate most of the 20,000 islands considered to be one of the last and final frontiers of habitable earth. For reasons of famine, religion, overpopulation, war or just the overwhelming human desire for exploration, these passionate and resourceful people set out on perilous voyages in wooden canoes to find new homes and better lives. During this period in Polynesian history, countless adventures, myths and legends of tragedy, conquest, cataclysmic natural disasters and exploration were told and retold through oral tradition by the memory keepers down through the generations. In approximately 1000 AD, one such story details the spiritually guided unparalleled epic voyages of a double-hulled deep sea sailing canoe and its crew of sixteen courageous loyal men. Lead by a young western Polynesian mariner who is inspired by his discovery of a piece of driftwood, a wooden tablet containing undecipherable but somewhat recognizable hieroglyphic script known to these primitive people as 'Rongo'. In order to seek out and discover the meaning of the Rongo, the gods directed the creation of a great seagoing canoe appropriately named “Malolo” (the Flying Fish). Built with great care and quality by expert craftsmen and artisans, this beautiful sleek craft was special in every way, built to withstand everything known and unknown that it could ultimately experience once it began its journey. With a crew of skilled, handpicked loyal men, they set sail eastward on their momentous quest which takes them completely across the South Pacific to the seemingly endless land mass of South America, then northward guided by their myths, legends and visions of those they encounter along the way. Their heroic adventures including their escape from sacrifice island, their survival of a Tsunami, the revenge of Pele (the fire goddess) and other wonders, experiences, tragedies, triumphs and discoveries during every phase of their voyage including their long and arduous time at sea. For this intrepid crew of ancient mariners the questions remain; will they ever discover the hidden meaning of the wooden tablet according to the will of their gods, will their journey return them once again to their tiny Western Pacific island, and will their epic adventure be worth all their suffering and loss? Book by Robert Bonville to be released via Amazon eBooks later this year. Voyages of Malolo 30 Pacific Paddler - October 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Paddler magazine - October 2011

Pacific Paddler cover
Contents
HCRA States
40th Annual Queen Liliuokalani
Hui Waa score board
OHCRA score board
Peter Caldwell's Pics
Duke Kahanamoku
Dad Center
To ride Kalehuawehe
Honolulu Elks Keiki OceanFest
2012 IVF World Outrigger Sprint
Kailua Bay Ironman Challenge
Vancouver’s Oceanman
OceanFest
SCORA's endless summer
Super Aito
Watch out for Props
Voyages of Malolo
Core Strengthening for Paddlers

Pacific Paddler magazine - October 2011