The East Coast Championship 2025 delivered exactly what paddlers came for—and then some. On Saturday, October 4th, the Wrightsville Beach Outrigger Canoe Club hosted OC6 crews on the legendary Graveyard course, and conditions were nothing short of epic. Big surf crashed through the lineup. Northeast winds whipped across the 14-mile course. And as crews navigated…
Enjoy this short review of the carbon fiber V1 Fai Va’a 4SI by Ozone.
Congratulations to all the paddlers who participated in the 2023 Graveyard race! It takes courage to sign up, and perseverance to finish — we tip our salt-stained, sun-bleached paddling caps to you! Feel free to download any images you want here. All we ask is that you credit @thepaddlechannel if you post the pix, and…
We’ve been asked a number of times which craft we prefer, the outrigger canoe or the surfski? Join Barry and Rod for a chat over a Flaming Amy’s burrito as they discuss which is “better”. Disclaimer: This video was originally published December 28, 2020. If you ask us this question today, the answer might be…
Greg shares his top 3 tips for paddlers who are developing their downwind skills. Greg has paddled all over the world (the Gorge, South Africa, Tarifa and Hawaii, to name a few) and he offered these three tips: To listen to the Peak Performance Paddle podcast mentioned here, go to https://tcsurfski.com/2019/10/31/ppp-episode-33-starting-a-surfski-journey-in-middle-age-with-greg-greene/. It’s a worthwhile listen…
In 2017, Hurricane Maria pushed winds and swell onto the North Carolina coastline, and it was the perfect opportunity to get the Puakea Designs Ehukai and Kehe Kai outrigger canoes on some bumps! It turned out to be one of those magical days when ocean just gave us gift after gift. If you’ve been downwinding,…
If you paddle your OC1 or surfski in surf and waves (or if you carry your boat on land), you’ll eventually end up with hairline cracks. We heard from a local repair guru that you can actually use super glue for effective repair of hairline cracks. For really effective repairs, you can combine super glue…
When we paddle our OC1s, it’s not uncommon for people to ask why these outrigger canoes have “holes” built into them. Join us as we talk about bullet bailers, drains holes and Venturi scuppers (they’re all the same thing) and how they magically make you faster.
In the summer, the Cape Fear region of North Carolina gets prevailing south southwest winds that make these waters the perfect downwind playground! Check out this summertime run in the Puakea Designs Ehukai OC1 (one man — or lady, of course — outrigger canoe). The Ehukai is a boat that was made to downwind, and…
If you downwind in your OC1, you know one of your most important pieces of gear is your leash. Unleashed canoes in windy conditions are some of the fastest creatures on earth (at least, if sure does seem like it if you’re trying to swim and catch up with it), so it is ESSENTIAL you…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaholBUyEu0&t=24s It seems like sooner or later everybody who paddles an outrigger canoe runs into the problem of finding the best way to carry hydration on those long, hot paddle sessions.Barry rigged up this hydration setup after seeing a number of Tahitian outrigger canoe paddlers using a similar setup.
We recently had a chance to tour (and paddle!) the Puakea Designs Unlimited outrigger canoe. Take a walk-through of the canoe’s features and see why some people are describing this OC6 with words like “ballistic missile” and “rocket cow” (goes like a rocket, kinda looks like a super fast carbon fiber cow?). This canoe is…
