2007 has been a busy and wonderful year for the Puakea Foundation. We will try to bring you up to date on what we have been doing.
In January and February we had our annual paddle workshop. It was a small one but enjoyed by the attendees.
In April Uncle Bobby did a workshop for the Bishop Museum at Heeia State Park about canoes and the ocean.
On May 26th we participated in E Malama O Ke Kai festival at Kapiolani park. We took the hoʻola (Uncle Bobby’s koa canoe) to the park for display and he also demonstrated the work he is doing for the foundation.
June and July was vacation, graduations and paddling for many of our members. Uncle Bobby and Pat went to New York to check out the Liberty Challenge Race. Hopefully we will be able to participate in this race with a koa canoe in 2010.
August we went to the state race on Kauai. It was a wonderful sight to see all those koa canoes racing in the bay. After that we sponsored a women’s and men’s crew in the Kona long distance race on labor day. Both crews used the Halani (a koa canoe that was built by Uncle Bobby and Uncle John). It is one of Kamehameha Canoe Club’s racing canoes.
In September we sponsored a crew in the “Na Wahine O Ke Kai”:http://www.nawahineokekai.com race between Molokai and Oahu. We would like to thank Alana Burrows for a job well done in coordinating everything from lodging, transportation and food. She did a wonderful job and everyone had a great time. It was nice to see them all smiling when they finished the race. Everyone was very happy.
Also in October we sponsored a men’s crew in the “Molokai Hoe”:http://www.molokaihoe.com race and they did a great job. Both the men’s and women’s crew used Uncle Bobby’s koa canoe, Ho’ola. In the race. Uncle Bobby is now working on the Ho’ola to redesign her. Being able to watch her in the races gave him the opportunity to determine what he wanted to do when he started to work on her. He would like to thank both crews for using her in the races. He loves to watch her in the water. The foundation would like to congratulate both crews for a job well done. We also want to thank Ropati of “Pacific Paddler Magazine”:http://www.pacificpaddler.com for putting in a full page on our men and women paddlers.
The next item for us was our annual Ho’ola koa project on the Big Island. We went to Hilo for the weekend of October 28 and 29 and went directly up to Umi Koa ranch. We had the opportunity this year to have the manager of the ranch give us a tour of the area where indigenous plants were planted earlier.
This year we did cleaning of invasive plants instead of planting more trees. We were able to see the many koa seedlings we had planted previously and marvel at how they have grown in only one or two years. There were a total of 27 participants this year from Honolulu and Hilo.
Our ongoing projects are still going at Heeia State Park and everyone is invited to come and participate and learn. We are now in the process of working on the koa canoes from Healani and Leeward Kai canoe clubs. We also have two logs and two other canoes that are projects in the near future. Coming up in 2008 is a paddle workshop, if you are interested in it please check out the website for details.
The Puakea Foundation would like to give heartfelt thanks to Roxanne of “Bare Feet Studios”:http://www.barefeetstudios.com, for all of her hard work and dedication in maintaining our website. She is doing a wonderful job for us.
We wish all of you a Mele Kalikimaka and Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou!
_Uncle Bobby, Pat, Hovey, Beth, Alana, Ricky_
<a href=”#top”>Back to Top</a>
In 2006, the Masters Women raced the Ho’ola, a koa canoe built by Bobby’s dad in the 1950′s, in Kona for the big 
One of the goals of the Puakea Foundation is to race the koa canoes whenever possible. For example, there are many communities that have never seen a koa canoe, even though the sport of outrigger canoe racing is well-established. It is also a goal of the foundation to support paddlers of all ages in racing activities.