Dana Outrigger Canoe Club Documentary

The 50s, Lauren Harrison, who founded our club, he was a surfer that went back and forth between Hawaii and California all the time and had connections with Duke Onomoku and some of the other paddlers and surfers over in Hawaii. So in the late 50s, Toots Minville from Hawaii wanted to create a race and promote outrigger canoe paddling out here in California. So he tapped one of his friends, Noah Kalama, in the Long Beach, Newport area, and asked him to put together a California team and to race an all-star Hawaiian team in 1959 from Catalina, Newport. He went to Lauren, who was a Santa Monica lifeguard, surfer in this area, and wanted to get some watermen, got them in a canoe, and put together the first Catalina race in 1959. The Californians took second, and then they took a mold off the boat that won from the Hawaiians, started making fiberglass canoes here right after that, and then that's how the association was born out here in California. And then when the harbor was built, they officially started the Dana Point Outrigger Canoe Club here in the harbor, and the inaugural race was from Newport to Dana Point. What the canoe club allows people kind of from outside of surfing and all the other things is access to the ocean. You can come down here as a complete novice and never paddled before, and that's pretty much what most people do, and we kind of take you from that first stroke to hopefully, and most of them do, stick with it through the year and end up racing from Catalina to Newport, or for the women's race, Newport to Catalina. We also have high school kids that come down here and paddle, and what's great to see is they come down and paddle as high school kids, and then they go off to college, and a lot of them sometimes come back after they've got their college done and start their careers and families here and come back to the club. We also have outreach programs where we've done called the Best Day Ever program where they bring kids down with autism, and they come and we put them in the canoes. They do a surfing event with that. We brought canoes to that down to Doheny to try to get them out there in a little safer environment to be out in the ocean in. We also have an adaptive paddling group that comes down, and they've been with us now for several years. Now the sport, you can find it all over the world. We think the next natural progression for this is an Olympic sport of some type, kind of like rowing. It'll be a team paddling sport. It's definitely moving in that direction right now. A lot of clubs have, you know, they really embrace the Hawaiian culture, and we do as well, but I really feel like this is, the culture at this club is more of, it's very Southern California beach surf culture. So where Dana Outrigger fits in the scheme of things with other competitive clubs here is we're one of the largest clubs as far as members, because we have Keiki program, we've got an adaptive program, we have novices, we have a men's and women's teams, and the men and women in this club, the ages range from your 20s up to your 70s. As far as competitively, we have the top women's team for the last 10 years. They've been winning the US championships, which is from Newport to Catalina. They pretty much dominate all the local races around here, and when they go internationally, they're a top three team. The men's team is also in age division categories, one of the top clubs around here. We've also had a history of being one of the top teams in California as well, winning Catalina three times. Dana Outrigger. New club. Means to me. Family. Empowerment. Community. Family. All of my friends in life. I met my husband through paddling, my daughter is a paddler now. We've been able to offer the opportunity to Outrigger to. Kids, teenagers, people of different abilities. Wounded warriors, and best day, and surf and turf. Dana became, no, I'd have to say my second family. I'm stronger. I'm more confident. The very first time I crossed the Catalina channel and I was standing on the Avalon beach, looking at the mainland with that paddle in my hand, I thought, oh my gosh, I did that with five other people on this stick. Amazing empowerment. Lived in this community for almost 20 years now. Not until I started paddling did I actually meet the community. It's generational. My son paddled as part of the kids program, you know, 20 some years ago. Now he's a member of the club and paddling with the open team. I started with my entire family and we've been doing this 10 years now and still going strong and we love every moment of it. They've really become my family. Everybody I talk to, everybody I text, we travel everywhere together around the world. The happiness that brings into your day when you wake up and say, I get the honor of paddling today. I get to be on the water today and I get to be with my friends and family today. It's the little wins at practices. It's the little wins at races that just adds to the value and purpose of who you are. I started out at 235 at this. I'm now down to 200 pounds. So after 30 years, I'm losing a pound a year, which is great. If you're lucky enough, you meet your husband like I did in the team, which is life-changing for me. An opportunity to stay healthy and be involved in the community. The family affair and it's just, it's just one of the best things you could ever do with your life. It really is. Dana-Hour Junior Club to me means everything.