Passion with a purpose

For some, work is just a job. For others, it’s an occupation.

For the fortunate, it’s life meeting lifestyle and then living the passion it created.

That is the case with Kalani Irvine. He didn’t choose his career path as much as it chose him, hearing the ocean’s call and becoming immersed in its waters.

"I was always around paddling, even before I started paddling," Irvine said. "My dad (Ben "Sonny" Irvine) was involved. He was an escort (boat driver for distance races), so I was exposed to the sport early.

"I paddled because I had a passion for it, loved it since I was a kid. Repairing the canoes is part of that lifestyle. The surprise is that I can make a living doing it. The bonus is I enjoy it."

To that end, the 49-year-old Irvine is collaborating with famed canoe designer John Martin and sharing his Hawaiian Creations workshop in Kaneohe.

Irvine’s company is Aloha Composites, the name he used while working on and manufacturing watercraft in China.

Currently Irvine is concentrating on repairs, a year-round demand given the various paddling seasons for outriggers, one-mans, kayaks and paddleboards. There always are dings to be fixed, hulls to be re-fiberglassed and sometimes serious damage from a losing run-in with the reef.

There is no crying in canoe repairs, except if it’s a koa, "but I know I can fix it," Irvine said. A club will put what is considered a family member in his hands, a trust most recently given by Ewa Pu’uloa Outrigger.

"Working on a koa is my favorite," said Irvine, whose Hawaiian lineage includes the Houghtailing ohana. "Getting to work on Ewa Pu’uloa is exciting.

"I started fixing my own boats because I either couldn’t afford or didn’t have the time to send it to a shop. It was out of necessity in order to get back out paddling as soon as I could. And with Lanikai (Canoe Club), when we were a small club back in the day, the only way we could fix our koa was to do it ourselves. We were fortunate to have people willing to work with us, such as Paul Gay with the Mokulua."

Irvine counts some of the best watermen and canoe builders as his mentors: Martin, Gay, Gale Berengue, Karel Tresnak, Uncle Bobby Puakea.

"I still go talk to Bobby," Irvine said of Puakea, who repairs koa canoes at nearby He’eia Kea. "A lot of people have been influential and I’ve been lucky with that.

"You don’t realize the connections you make when you’re paddling. Twenty years later, you’ll see someone and you have that bond. It’s cool."

The Damien Memorial graduate made a number of those connections early when he started paddling for Lanikai at age 11. His 12-and-under crew went on to become the core of the senior men’s crew that went undefeated for more than five years and won consecutive Molokai Hoes (1995-96).

Among those paddling buddies were Jim and John Foti, and Kai Bartlett. Irvine has been in contact with Bartlett on Maui for potential collaborations, and, several years ago, he and the Foti brothers founded Paddle Sports International, which sells OC-1s and surf skis in Hawaii, Washington, Europe, Asia and Australia.

The repair side of the business will allow Irvine to do what he really wants to do: build canoes.

But he said he wanted to make sure he had the quality down and was able to turn out a canoe in a week before advertising the business.

He didn’t have to go far for a couple of potential customers. Pacific Elite Sports, a fitness center recently opened by past Super Bowl champions Chris (Pittsburgh 2006, ’09) and Ma’ake Kemoeatu (Baltimore 2013), is just a few bays down in the same warehouse complex as Hawaiian Creations. The brothers would like Irvine to build stand-up paddleboards for them, a design that would require supporting a bodyweight of 340-plus.