Our older outrigger, the GREEN one, hails from California. She was sold to NCAWPA from a team that felt the boat had bad karma. Well, she's served us very well! The boat was named Kikili'a by her previous owners. "Kiki," with a macron or kahako over the second "i" in "Kiki" means "to flow swiftly." The glottal stop or `okina in li`a at the end translates to "strong desire, yearning." Thus, Kikili'a means "the canoe with a strong desire to flow swiftly!"

We purchased our second outrigger canoe, the BLUE boat, in 2000, taking delivery at the Liberty Cup race in New York from the Hawaiian team who raced her. In deciding on a name, we wanted to use a Hawaiian word to stay true to the outrigger culture as well a Native American word to honor the heritage of the rivers on which we paddle. So we took a little creative license and used both. Her name is Ku'oko'a Nahimen.

For ku`oko`a, there is a macron or kahako over the "u" in "ku" which would then mean "stand up;" and "`oko`a" with the glottal stop or `okina before the first "o" and before the "a" then translates to "apart, on it's own." "Ku`oko`a" then means "freedom, independence." In the Lenni Lanape Indian tribe (also known as the Delaware), "Nahimen" means "to go down the river." Put together, Ku oko'a Nahimen means "Freedom and Independence going down the river."

Thank you to Lisa Oshiro for contributing her expertise and helping us to understand the names of our boats! For more information on the Hawaiian punctuation, the following link shows you what the `okina and kahako look like: Diacritical Marks. The site itself uses the ^ above the letters to represent a straight line because of the limited fonts on the web, but it shows in graphic boxes what it is supposed to look like.

Our club owns one teak dragonboat, and docks two fiberglass dragonboats on behalf of the Chinese Women's League. A dragonboat seats 20 paddlers sitting side by side in pairs, with a steerer in the back and a drummer in the front. Watch these boats in action at the Washington DC Dragonboat Festival. We're also in the process of acquiring a 10-person mini-dragonboat to give us more flexibility in training.