About Us

Kawaikini Canoe Club is an Outrigger Canoe Club on Kauai. Members AND GUESTs meet at the Wailua River for Recreational paddling.
We encourage malahini (newcomer to Hawaii) and Malihini mākaʻikaʻi (sight-seeing visitor, tourist) to call us and arrange to paddle with us in hopes you might join us permanently.

Kawaikini Canoe Club has been an active outrigger canoe club at the Wailua River Park on Kaua’i since 1982 when Mrs. Emily Smith gifted our first outrigger canoe, and the state provided our club hale space at the Wailua River Park.  Walter “Freckles” Smith continued to work with us each year to provide a fundraiser for the community called the Walter Smith Memorial race every year until 2014.

The Kawaikini Canoe Club was formed for the purpose of engaging in charitable, educational, sport, cultural, and recreational activities associated with Hawaiian canoeing to anyone, and everyone interested in outrigger paddling as a member of the Hawaii Canoe Racing Association. Our club has been an independent self-managed, not-for-profit recreational canoe club since 2017.

The principal purpose of Kawaikini Canoe Club is to:

1. Engage in, promote, encourage participation in, and provide education and instruction in Hawaiian and Polynesian culture through paddling and other related activities at the local level.
2. Foster, encourage and promote interest in the sport of and science of canoe racing and recreational paddling in the County of Kaua’i.
3. Encourage, maintain, educate, and perpetuate authentic Hawaiian canoe leisure activities. Provide access to outrigger canoes to the public in a safe and learning environment.

Kawaikini Canoe Club is named for the highest summit, at a height of 5,243 ft, on the central volcano on the Island of Kauai, called Kawaikini Summit.  Kawaikini is part of the mountain range of Wai’ale’ale, where many waters gather and come together (Kawaikini literally means the multitudinous water-Source: Place Names of Hawaii Dictionary).  Kawaikini is one of the most scenic mountains in the world.  The Kawaikini Canoe Club is based at the Wailua River with a nice view of this summit.

Valley of the Kings:Waialeale (“rippling waters” in Hawaiian) is the name given to the small lake at the northern end of the summit rim, the high-point near there where the official rain gauge is located and a common name for the mountain as a whole.The volcano itself is long extinct; millions of years of erosion have contributed to its rugged beauty.

Rain keeps the summit shrouded in clouds most of the time and makes it (officially) inaccessible by foot. To the east are dramatic waterlogged cliffs, which were used as backdrop in Jurassic Park, South Pacific and many other movies. The access to the summit is further guarded by sheer cliffs on the south and the north side and to the west are the thick jungles of the Alakai Swamp. Acient Hawaiians were able to reach summit by climbing between a ridge from the northeast, but the most realistic approach is to slog through the Alakai Swamp, starting on existing trails of Kokee State Park.

At the summit, the ancient Hawaiians built an alter, which still remains. There is also a modern rain gauge at the top, used to verify the “Wettest Spot on Earth” designation (about 450 inches a year). The rain gauge is serviced by helicopter, which is also how most tourists view the peak.