“If you give a woman a paddle, you give her something to dream on.

If you give a woman a paddle, she will step into a canoe.

Give a woman a paddle, and she will do the Ka’iwi Channel.

Give a woman a paddle, and she will join her sisters as Na Wahine O Ke Kai.”

— The late Rell Sunn, race day, 1996

Why? Why not?

It wasn’t so much a question of if women could do it, but more a question of when. Na Wahine O Ke Kai, the women’s outrigger canoe race between Molokai and Oahu, had long been the dream of female paddlers, serious discussions beginning in 1954, just two years after the men’s inaugural Molokai Hoe.

But, actually, there were plenty of questions about the ability of women to make what is now the 40.8-mile crossing (the course standardized in 1979). Male paddlers openly said the channel was no place for women. The Coast Guard discouraged it.

As the late Jack Wyatt, the Star-Bulletin’s outdoors writer, wrote just prior to the inaugural Na Wahine O Ke Kai in 1979: “Give women a little freedom, the right to vote, recognition in a few sports and what happens? Attacking one of man’s last bastions in Hawaii, that of racing an outrigger canoe across the Molokai Channel.”

That bastion fell days later on Oct. 14.

Or, as Puna Kalama Dawson, a key race organizer and Lanikai Canoe Club coach, said after successfully crossing: “The men can’t hold it over our heads anymore that the Molokai Channel is theirs.”

And so gender equity came to be in what is considered the world championship of outrigger paddling for both women and men.

The groundwork — or, rather, the waterwork — was laid in 1954 by eventual longtime race director Hannie Anderson. The 20-year-old, Vi Makua and La Abbey — members of the dominating Waikiki Surf Club’s senior women’s regatta crew — found someone to take them across the channel to see what the men’s race was all about (code for “spy on.”).

Because of breaking waves at Kawakiu Bay, their boat was unable to land, but the trio accepted a ride from Duke Kahanamoku, who happened to be passing in his smaller vessel. The conditions were too rough even for Hawaii’s greatest waterman to get them to shore, telling the women they’d have to swim in.

The “drowned rats” were not welcomed, even by their own Surf Club coach Wally Froiseth. But upon learning that entertainment was part of the prerace agenda, Anderson wound up dancing hula under the lights that had been strung across the campsite.

The next hula was done in 1975 when two crews of 18 women each — from Healani Canoe Club and Onipa’a, made up of paddlers from Kailua, Lanikai, Outrigger and Surf Club — did a test run to prove it could be done. According to an account in Peter Caldwell’s book “Molokai-Oahu through the Years,” at first men in the escort boats jumped in to help the women with their water changes. That did not go over well with some of the paddlers, who said they were perfectly capable of getting back into the canoe on their own.”

Healani crossed first in 7 hours and 15 minutes, followed by Onipa’a soon after.

The consensus? Eighteen was too many and let’s go the next year.

It didn’t happen until 1979, a combination of determination and organization. The meticulously kept minutes document that latter, with an ambitious agenda that was sandwiched in between the opening invocation and closing prayer.

The organizers knew they would need help — divine and other. Leilani “Lei” Faria, the first female president of the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, had been a vocal proponent for a women’s channel race, but when her health began to deteriorate, she passed the paddle to Carleen Ornellas from Kailua Canoe Club.

Ornellas had been part of the 1975 crossing — “There was no doubt we were going to do it,” the 1971 Kailua High graduate said. “We didn’t think of the potential danger. We just wanted to do it.

“Growing up in Kailua, there were no organized sports for us (girls) except paddling. But regatta was limited to four races for the women, starting with novice (no youth categories like the boys had). We had to push to let us have a distance season.

“What it did (for women) was create camaraderie between clubs. Yes, it’s cliques, but then we got to be good friends.”

Although Ornellas did not compete in the inaugural race of 1979, she left a legacy then. She was eight months pregnant in October and there still remains a no-pregnancy rule in Na Wahine O Ke Kai.

“There probably shouldn’t be a rule now, but at the time it was about safety, liability and the oh-my-god of being out there (in the channel),” she said. “And the potential of what could happen.

“Now we’re more educated.”

That education was part of the fundraising process, where the steering committee sought sponsorship, sold T-shirts and bumper stickers, and held a Paddle-A-Thon in Kailua Bay.

It was a 1/8-mile course where canoes turned on a buoy, then returned, with a minimum of 10 laps per crew. People pledged 25 cents per lap and “it raised money, raised awareness and raised eyebrows,” said Kathy Foti, who along with Dawson and Amy Best Crews, organized “the spectacle.”

“We did everything,” Crews said. “We did the fundraising, silkscreened the pareaus, the flags for the official boats. I flew one of the officials’ flags on my escort boat on the 25th anniversary.

“It was just more of not why but why not? Why couldn’t we do it? Why SHOULDN’T we do it?”

There was much flotsam and jetsam in the way. The men’s race was sponsored by Aloha Week in Hawaii, Inc., and when Aloha Week was pushed back to October from September in 1979, the women’s race almost didn’t happen because the conditions were decidedly more treacherous later in the year.

“This is written in the minutes,” Crew said. “‘To consider for Race Rules Committee — Men Steersmen.’ Maybe we did consider it …”

If so, it was brief.

Very brief.

There have been other changes: setting the age limit at 18, dropping the required number of paddlers from 12 to 10, adding more age divisions.

There have been other challenges. In 1980 and 2015, the race was canceled due to 25- to 30- foot surf and high winds. COVID-19 protocols and concerns have canceled the past three, including the one scheduled for this September.

Na Wahine O Ke Kai, so christened in 1979 by Dawson, has grown from 17 crews in its inaugural year to a high of 79 in 2003. (In 2019, the last running, there were 71). Team Bradley won in 6 hours, 27 minutes; Outrigger’s winning time in 1979 was 6:35:14.

The race will be back in 2023, organizers said. And so will be the spirit that Anderson has brought since 1979.

When asked in 1986 how she had kept the dream alive for the 30 years prior to the race being realized, she said, “I don’t give up easy.”

June marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX. To commemorate this watershed event, the Star-Advertiser will publish a series of stories celebrating the achievements of female pioneers and leaders with Hawaii ties.

Click here to view the Title IX series.