When the Outrigger Canoe Club was founded in 1908, surfboards were not only popular for riding waves, keiki entertained themselves by racing from the beach, through the surf, catching a wave, and riding it back to shore. There was even a protocol for wave position during such races. First out got the primo spot, all others stayed to the right in order. Surfboard racing was included in the Club’s water carnivals; men and women, boys and girls participated, and spectators abounded.
In 1924, Club Captain Dad Center who used surfboards to train his Olympic caliber swimmers, announced OCC would be holding a new type of surfboard race to be run outside of the surf on a flat water course parallel to the shore. The races were held beginning on New Year’s Day 1925 in front of the Club in Waikiki. Hundreds showed up to watch. The races were moved to the Ala Wai Canal in 1926 when it opened.
Controversy sparked at the races in 1930 when Californian Tom Blake, paddling under the OCC banner, won the half-mile race on a hollow cigar-shaped board. Some paddlers refused to race Blake claiming that the board didn’t meet the rules. Officials found nothing prohibiting the board and let the results stand. Blake went on to design many more paddleboards that were used by lifeguards and distance paddlers. Hawaii paddlers showed up at the race in 1931 with a variety of newly designed racing boards to compete with Blake.
In 1953 California lifeguard Tom Zahn crossed the Molokai Channel on a paddleboard and the sport was energized anew. Waikiki Surf Club sponsored the Diamond Head Paddleboard Race for 20+ years before abruptly cancelling the 1974 race. That’s when OCC’s Cline Mann revived the sport once again. To save the event for paddlers, Cline got sponsors, awards and put on the Christmas Day Race a few weeks later.
In 1960 Mann commissioned Swimm Boats by Shepherd and Daniels to make two 14-foot paddleboards. Cline loaned the boards to OCC members so they could compete in races including the Diamond Head and Lanai to Maui Paddleboard Races.
In 1978, Cline convened a meeting with Dale Hope, Joe Quigg, George Downing, Donny Mailer and surfboard shapers to address concerns about the size of paddleboards and the storage problem they created. The group recommended a new class of paddleboard: 12-feet in length and 20 pounds, with no mechanical rudder. Cline’s idea was to enable more paddlers to participate by offering a board that did not have the advantage because it was made from costly materials. This kept the sport fair for many years. As new materials became more affordable decades later, lighter boards entered the arena.
Mann asked Quigg to build a prototype of the stock board to show prospective paddlers. It received good reviews and both home made and commercial boards began being produced to the new specs.
To promote the new class of boards, Outrigger announced in August 1978 that it would sponsor a new 10,000 meter Waikiki Ocean Paddleboard Race that would only have one class of boards: the new stock board. (See Who Is Cline Mann for more details.) The goal was to elevate paddleboard racing to national and international prominence and minimize the influence the board had on the ultimate performance of the paddler.
The course included rounding both the Diamond Head and Wreck buoys and started and finished at the Club. To encourage paddlers to enter, the Club charged no fees and gave out t-shirts, lunch and awards to participants. Surfboard maker George Downing made 12 paddleboards available to paddlers who needed boards.
The first race was scheduled for December 1978 and drew 23 participants. The race was won by OCC’s Chuck Kelley, with Dale Hope and Mike Fox the runner ups. And the sport had its first woman competitor Gay Austin. A Summer 10K was added in August 1979.
In 1981, the annual Summer Surf Paddleboard Race was added. The race came about because several paddlers were winning all the flat races and it seemed like no one else could earn that spot. The surf race provided a new challenge. The race started at Sans Souci, with paddlers heading out the Kapua Channel to a buoy one-half mile out, and turning and catching a wave back in. Each paddler made three trips back and forth through the surf. Women and kids did two laps. It was a return to 1908 when this was the traditional method of surfboard racing. This race is still being held and has been renamed Scratchfest.
In 1985 the Paddleboard Committee changed the name of the Summer Waikiki Ocean 10K Race to the Cline Mann Paddleboard Race and reduced the distance to 5,000-meters. In 2000, the Paddleboard Committee changed the Cline Mann 5K to the Cline Mann Memorial Ko`olaupoko Paddleboard Race, a 15-mile race from Makai Pier at Makapuu to the Club beach. Cline had long thought about such a race because of the challenge it offered and because it hadn’t been done. Today, the race is held on the Saturday after the 4th of July as a prelude to the Molokai 2 Oahu paddleboard race.
All Outrigger paddleboard races were open to the public.
After competing in the Catalina-Manhattan Beach Paddleboard Race in 1996, Dawson Jones returned with the idea of holding a Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard Race. He joined with Mike Takahashi and put on the first channel crossing race on a paddleboard in August 1997. Jones finished second overall in the international field and Outrigger’s Dale Hope and Charlie Walker won the two-person relay and were fourth overall.
Outrigger sponsored paddleboard races for more than six decades, giving the sport the opportunity to grow and prosper. Several dozen paddleboard races have come and gone in recent years. In addition to the traditional prone paddleboard stock races, many are now competing in the unlimited class (with a rudder), on foils and on stand up paddleboards (SUPs) in races across the islands and the world.
The Club continues to promote paddle boarding with the Paddleboard Committee holding two races a year and clinics for keiki where skills and good sportsmanship are taught and keiki can enter fun races to gain experience.
Outrigger has produced many great paddleboarders including Dale Hope, Bret Goodfriend, Mike Fox, Kainoa Downing, Chuck and Robby Kelley, Keone Downing, Chris Moore, Heath Hemmings, Dawson Jones, Mark Rigg, Jimmy Austin, Kanesa Duncan, Eric Abbott, Peter Balding III (Trey), Hunter Pflueger, Robin Smith, Fred Fong, Dolan Eversole, Mikey Cote. Marc and Brian Rocheleau and numerous others.
A new group of paddlers has emerged and are very competitive in paddle boarding. They include Toa Pere (age 15) who won his Under 19 age group in the 2024 M2O and finished 5th overall, Jackson Monahan and Kainalu Eversole.
For more than 100 Years Outrigger Canoe Club has supported the Sports of Old Hawaii including paddle boarding. We look forward to the continued growth of the sport and can’t wait to see how far our current crop of young paddlers can go.
Outrigger-sponsored paddleboard races:
- 1925-1932 New Year’s Day Surfboard Race
- 1974-1977 Diamond Head Buoy Race
- 1978-2003 Waikiki Ocean 10K Paddleboard Winter Race
- 1979-2003 Waikiki Ocean 10K Paddleboard Summer Race
- 1981-Present Summer Surf Paddleboard Race (Scratchfest)
- 1985-1999 Cline Mann 5K Paddleboard Race
- 2000-Present Cline Mann Memorial Ko’olaupoko Paddleboard Race
To learn more about the paddleboard races that Outrigger has sponsored see below:
Cline Mann Paddleboard Races
Scratch Fest Surf Relay
Summer Surf Paddleboard Race
Waikiki Ocean 10K Paddleboard Races
Diamond Head Buoy Paddleboard Race
New Year’s Day Surfboard Race
Non-OCC Paddleboard Races
Stand Up Paddleboard
Paddleboard Committee