Hui Waʻa Kaukahi

Nui a lehulehu na mokupuni, ʻaʻole lawa ka manawa

So many islands, so little time!

Group of kayakers posing in front of Waikiki hotels

Magic Island Meet & Greet

Story by Terry Shimabukuro

Featured photo by Kevin Ching, other photos as noted

February 2, 2025

A beautiful day was forecast for our first 2025 Meet & Greet, but torrential rain a few days before caused a couple of sewage spills upstream of the Ala Wai canal. There were also reports of other opala flowing into the canal. So, the concern for this event wasn’t the weather, but the water quality at the Magic Island canoe ramp where we planned to launch. There were no brown water advisories posted for the area, but Kevin sent me updates from his evening runs warning that the water looked dirty so Ruby and I went to Magic Island on Saturday to see for ourselves. I didn’t see any floating garbage patches in the channel and I could see the bottom in the area around the canoe ramp so I gave the go ahead to proceed as planned for Sunday with a caveat to those sensitive to water quality.

We arrived Sunday morning well before eight expecting the normal early morning crowd at Magic Island. Instead we ran into a crowded park road with a myriad of serious people carrying racing canoes to the lawn area around the canoe hale. It turned out that the Kanaka Ikaika Racing Association had a big canoe race scheduled that day with their starting line right in front of the canoe ramp! Auwe! This is one more thing we’ll have to check before planning paddles at popular beaches. Our participants had to hunt for the remaining parking spots so our launch time was delayed and we had to stage our kayaks on the bank next to the canoe ramp.

Canoe racers with our kayaks on the bank in the background – photo by Kanaka Ikaika
Kayaks and kayakers on the bank next to the Magic Island canoe ramp
Pre-launch staging – photo by Mark

We had a good turnout of 18 kayakers in 15 kayaks, including six first-time club paddlers. Ruby, Hilda, and President Bill stayed ashore to hold our picnic spot. The races were well spaced out so except for the parking hassle and having to carry our kayaks down the bank instead of the ramp we were able to launch easily between races.

Sweep Mark Ling captured our flotilla going out the channel
Paddling toward Leahi under a cloudless sky – photo by Terry

We paddled past a grounded sailboat outside of the Ala Wai harbor breakwater. Upon closer inspection, Mark uncovered the name of the boat, Oar-Gasm! Hmmm…did a distracted captain cause the grounding?

Grounded sailboat outside the Ala Wai harbor breakwater. The Hilton Rainbow Tower is in the background.
Grounded sailboat outside the breakwater – photo by Mark
View of the stern of the grounded sailboat showing it's name "Oar-Gasm"
Stern view of the grounded sailboat – photo by Mark

With near perfect conditions of full sun, warm air, light breeze and minimal swell, we cruised slowly past the resorts that prime our state’s economic engine. Kevin took the lead and our guests followed my instructions not to go past him. Other members were assigned a guest to escort and Mark swept making sure no one was left behind. The calm conditions allowed us to keep close together out and back.

Two kayakers with the Hilton Hawaiian Village in the background
Eileen and Barry pass the Hilton Hawaiian Village – photo by Terry
Two tandem kayaks pause outside of the Outrigger Reef hotel.
Our guests pause outside the Outrigger Reef to capture a memory – photo by Terry
Six kayak passing the Halekulani and Sheraton hotels
Kevin leads us past the Halekulani and Sheraton – photo by Terry

While kamaʻaina tend to shun the concrete jungle of Waikiki, paddling the shoreline under these picturesque conditions helped me understand why tourists continue to flock here. We paddled almost to Kuhio Beach where we gathered so that Kevin could take the group photo at the top of this story. We then turned around and headed back to Magic Island.

Four kayaks wait outside the pink Royal Hawaiian hotel
Admiring the pink palace before returning to Magic Island – photo by Terry

There was a lot of traffic when we got back to the Ala Wai channel with canoe racers sprinting to the finish line, pleasure boats leaving the harbor and several teenagers in little sailboats that sailed right onto the race course. We stayed to edges of the channel and made it safely back to shore.

After stowing our gear, we gathered at the picnic site and enjoyed an ono lunch. I’m not sure if it was the beautiful weather, the bountiful potluck spread or our sparkling personalities, but we signed up a record five new members at this Meet & Greet! Welcome to the club Barry, Clarice, Kim, Sarah and Angie!

This is our second Magic Island Meet & Greet and we’ve had a car key incident both times. The first time, a key was accidentally left in the car door key slot which invited someone to take the car. Luckily, the joy rider left the car in the Ala Moana shopping center parking lot and it was quickly recovered. This time, a member lost their car key. Stan Dalbec graciously drove the member home to retrieve their spare. Perhaps we need to add a car key check to our paddle leader checklist.