Paddlers in global spotlight after tackling 12-foot wave

Paddler Annie Allen said she was praying that her crew would climb over the wave — topping 12 feet — at the start of Sunday’s Molokai-Oahu canoe race.

But the wave broke over them, capsizing their craft.

She unzipped the canvas around her, swam to the surface and caught a breath before she dived under to avoid another large wave.

She kept taking breaths, then diving deep to avoid the tumbling white water.

"It’s dangerous but we’re in really good shape," said Allen, 52. "I surf on Kauai."

The crew of the Pu‘u­wai Canoe Club, six women in their 50s and 60s, bailed out the canoe and, with a few crew switches, went on to finish the 41-mile Na Wahine o ke Kai race to Waikiki.

An Ocean Paddler TV video of the swamping of the crew has gone global.

"We’re getting calls from all over the world — Germany, Argentina, Tokyo, Korea," said Terry Galpin, who helped with video coverage of the race.

On one Facebook page, viewers have shared the video more than 1,900 times.

Perhaps as amazing is that out of 72 canoes and nearly 800 female paddlers in the race, only one canoe failed to finish the race. Waves swamped 10 of the canoes, damaging one. One paddler injured her ribs.

Although waves were sometimes 15 feet high at the mouth of Hale o Lono Harbor on Molokai, the crews found ways to reach deeper ocean, either in a lull in the breakers or by paddling fast, observers said.

"They really proved themselves," said Galpin, a producer for Ocean Paddler TV.

She said there are those who say the race should have been canceled, but she disagrees.

"Anyone who felt the conditions were above their abilities could have said, ‘I’m out,’ and not gone. It’s that simple," Galpin said.

She said her concern is that the national and international coverage of the event showing the big waves will have the news media focusing on the dangers of the event rather than the sport and the athletic conditioning of the participants.

Race director Hannie Anderson said she didn’t call it off because out in the channel the surf was choppy but not unusually high.

Anderson said she did cancel a race in 1980 when there were waves of 25 feet.

But the 34th annual race Sunday had participants coming up to her and saying they’ll be returning next year, she said.

"It was a good race," she said. "The women were able to handle it. … This is why they come to Hawaii, to challenge the Kaiwi Channel. You never know what the channel is going to do."