Outrigger Canoe Club began sponsoring the traditional Diamond Head Buoy Paddleboard Race in December 1974. The event was sponsored for 22 years (1951-1973) by the Waikiki Surf Club as part of the Makaha International Surfing Contest, but dropped without warning a few weeks before the 1974 event. Without missing a beat, Cline Mann found a sponsor, changed the course, and held the race on Christmas Day. The race now started at Kaimana Beach, out the Kapua Channel, around a channel flag east to the Diamond Head buoy, then west to Wreck buoy, and returned to the channel flag and Kaimana Beach.
The Club sponsored the event from 1974 to 1977. In 1978, WSC decided to sponsor the Diamond Head Race again, so the OCC began sponsoring a new race with one-class boards, a new name, new rules, a new course and a new date. It was the Waikiki Ocean 10K Paddleboard Races, with the Winter Race in December and the Summer Race in August each year.