- Travel
Take to the water (and see baby whales!) on a traditional outrigger canoe.
By
Travis Baptiste
If you’ve ever been to Hawaii and looked out into the ocean—or just watched HBO’s White Lotus—you may have noticed a super long canoe with an extra lateral appendage. It’s called an outrigger canoe, and while the stabilizing design is of Asian origin, they were an essential daily tool for Polynesian settlers. Today, outrigger canoe racing is the state sport of Hawaii, and locals test their mettle starting from a young age. Races like the Moloka'i Hoe are known throughout the world, and they’re even trying to make the sport a part of the Olympics. As Hawaii’s tourism industry seeks to redefine what makes a truly authentic island experience, many hotels are offering unique cultural programming such as outrigger canoe excursions. Outside of your resort, you can also find them at places like
Travis Baptiste, 23, is an Outrigger Steersman at the real White Lotus: the Four Seasons Maui. (If you see him, ask him about paddleboarding: he’s also a three-time Men's Overall Champion of the Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championship.) He talked to Thrillist about growing up in Hawaii, the significance of the outrigger, and what guests can experience on the water.As told to Vanita Salisbury.
I was born and raised here on Maui. When I was about four years old, I started getting pushed into waves on my boogie board by my dad. In fourth grade there was an opportunity to go and paddle in the summertime at the canoe club. We’d learn about canoe paddling and history, and then after that was done we’d go on the water. That was my first experience with outrigger paddling. I also got to compete that year: At that point I was racing in the manini division; it was all little kids, with an adult at the back of each canoe, and it wasn’t even really racing—we were just out there for bragging rights.
If you look at the [traditional] canoe, the bottom is very round, which is good—it helps you cut through the water. But the disadvantage is it’s unstable, no matter how good of a paddler you are. So the outrigger is an Asian design for stability that the Polynesians adopted.
They would make the canoes out of Koa wood, a wood that prefers to grow pretty high up in the mountains. You need a trunk that’s 40 to 60 feet long to make them. They knew the trees they needed by the Hawaiian hawk: if it was circling around the tree, that meant it was good to be a canoe. But if the hawk was pecking at the wood, they knew that it was weak. Here in Maui, the area that they would actually make the canoes was in Wailea, where the [Four Seasons Maui] is. Wai means water and Lea is the goddess of canoe making.
The Polynesians used voyager canoes to travel back and forth from Tahiti to Hawaii, and they originally found Hawaii by following bird migration patterns. They would navigate by cloud patterns during the day and off of the stars at night. Their canoe was a lot longer, a lot wider, and a lot taller than our canoe, very much like a catamaran-style. There’s a sail on it as well for winds to blow you place to place. Not so much paddling yourself, but using Mother Nature when you can.
I never had any interest in learning to navigate by the stars. I love paddling—don’t get me wrong. But going from Hawaii to Tahiti, I’d definitely take six hours over six weeks. But there are opportunities to do it here. One of my good friends growing up, Maleko Lorenzo, ended up getting on the Hōkūleʻa, which is our voyaging canoe, set up pretty much how our ancestors would, but it’s a modern canoe. They traveled from Oahu to Tahiti, and after that they went all around the world, voyaging off the stars.
The style of canoe that we have at the hotel is smaller; it’s just for paddling along the shoreline. We teach guests the basics, the calls, the commands. The best time to be out on the water in the outrigger is whale season, which is technically December through May. That’s a pretty awesome time on the water. It’s almost kind of whale soup. So you’re looking out on the horizon and you’re bound to see one or two.
They swim down from Alaska, and they’re here to either make babies or have their babies. So some of the whales that are here for mating, they’re usually out in the horizon doing their own thing—they don’t really care about us, to be honest. When a mama has her babies she’s going to usually come in closer to the shoreline. It’s just a lot easier, with a lot less current. And the babies, they are so funny. They love checking out the canoe, or anything really. They’re just super curious—they’re just born and they just want to see what everything is in the world. The whales are a special gift to us. You hear them singing. Now it’s quiet when they’re not around.
