Mālama I Ka Wa’a

Maintaining our canoes with general care during routine use is important. Please follow these instructions and take great care with any wa’a. Respect.

  • Treat every canoe with respect. Club canoes, especially, should be given respect, as they are a shared resource.

  • Do not sit on a canoe when it is not in the water. Do not step over a canoe. When assembling and disassembling a canoe, be gentle.

  • Each time a canoe is assembled, check the hull and the ama carefully for cracks. Press the canoe walls for signs of weakness. Tip the canoe back and forth and listen carefully for water in the hull and ama.

  • When the canoe is on the beach always point the nose of the canoe toward the ocean.

  • Do not drag or drop the canoe. Set the canoe down gently.

  • Place the canoe gently in the water

  • Never sit or lean on the canoe when it is not in the water.

  • Inspect the following before venturing out on the canoe:
    – Plugs
    – Iakos, especially the points where the iakos touch the canoe. Inspect them for signs of stress/cracks

  • Periodically wet the ropes at the ama, and wai.

  • If it has ratchets inspect them.

  • Check any rubbers and replace if they are cracked or worn.

  • After you finish paddling, rinse the canoe off thoroughly with fresh water. Rinse the underbelly and the topside of the hull and ama; Tie down the canoe.

  • If during the use of the canoe there has been a hit, accident, damage, report it to a board member.

Before the canoes go into the water, make sure the inside of the canoe is free of debris, etc. Also ensure that the ama is attached and secure. Loading the canoes into the water is done in slow motion. This is the only place where we do not race, and there is NO RUSH. We do not get style points for getting the canoe into the water at a speed other than a crawl.

After all the canoes are in the water, make sure that the canoe is in deep enough water so that when everyone gets in, the canoe is still floating, not semi‐parked in the sand. We do not load the canoes into the water, drag them up on the sand, then load people in, and then shove the canoe into the water, dragging it through the sand and rocks and creating stress on the canoe frame and fiberglass. Bail out water when done and make sure the ama doesn’t have water in it.