I have always loved Hawaiian outrigger canoes. I paddled and coached on O‘ahu for the Outrigger Canoe Club and the Waikiki Surf Club, and on Kauai for the Kauai Canoe Club in Niumalu. I was one of the founders and the coach for many years of the Hanalei Hawaiian Civic Canoe Club in beautiful Hanalei, Kauai. Hanalei was the first neighbor island club to win a state Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association (HCRA) championship in Hilo in 1982. I’ve been studying, repairing and building canoes since the early 1960’s. After spending a summer in Tahiti I returned and built the first Hawaiian six man racing outrigger canoe made from an Albezzia tree, a species of acacia introduced to the islands years ago. Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that the canoe was made in the traditional ways from a tree growing on Kauai where native koa trees no longer thrive, this canoe was not sanctioned by the HCRA since it was not made of koa.  However, it was raced very successfully until it was destroyed in 1992 when Hurricane Iniki devastated Kauai.

The Holopuni OC-3 and the OC-3/Sail are the three person, 30 foot Hawaiian outrigger canoes that have evolved over the past 25 years to meet the many challenging needs for paddling, sailing and camping in the wide variety of conditions found in Hawaiian waters. Besides Hawai‘i, they can be seen on the East Coast, West Coast and the Great Lakes. Also Tahiti, Australia and New Zealand.

All profits of Holopuni sales go to supporting needy children overseas.

For more information, please send an e-mail message to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit the website www.holopunicanoes.com, call me @ 858 342-0250

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