The Fun Hogs » Kaile

Kaile Kanu

Administrator — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:28:12 +0000

I have had this idea in my head for a few years, now… A canoe for Kaile! Being short and light, Kai can’t really paddle a normal one man unless it’s dead calm out. It floats too high, and the wind blows it all over the place. She needs one that’s scaled down to fit a kid…

Well, we have (or had…) this old one man… About 5 years ago, I “won” it in a Lanikai silent auction for about $120. I fixed it up and used it a few times, but it was 25′ long and weighed about 50# – not exactly a Ferrari. Needless to say, I never really used it much. It just sat around, sad and neglected. I was feeling kind of guilty about the condition it was in… As you can see below, Kaile sort of “claimed” it a while back. I figured that one day, I could give it to her. Well, it appears that that day is now. Now how to make the huge canoe suitable for a little paddler?…

Bixler Horizon

The canoe is long, but it’s also very skinny. My idea was to cut about 10′ out of the middle, and glass the ends back together – leaving a short little “Keiki Kanu”. Because it’s so narrow, the scale works out really well. It took a LONG time to finally get the courage to take the plunge, but a few months ago I jumped in head first, skill saw in hand. I cut about 7′ off each end, then sliced off the deck. Then, I epoxied the ends together. This left me with a shell for the hull.

Once I had a shell for the hull, I needed a new deck. I made bulkheads out of 1″ foam, and then cut a deck out of 2″ foam. I epoxied the deck to the top of the bulkheads and sides of the canoe. There are holes for water to get out at the bottom of the bulkheads, and along the top of each side of the bulkheads. With the deck in place, I used a shureform to round it out and make a “canoe-like” shape. I left the center of the canoe open, to put in a foot well and recess for a seat. This was the “challenging” part of the project. I used the 1″ foam and shureform to shape pieces that I epoxied together to finish out the deck.

When I glued in the sides of the seat well, I made channels to run the rudder cable tubing through. I just took the cable and tubing from the old canoe and reused it…

Speaking of rudder, I needed to make a new rudder that fit the smaller canoe… I cut the shaft out of the old rudder, and shaped a new one out of 1/4″ divinicell. I coated it with epoxy and glass, sanded it, and painted it. Bam! New custom rudder.

What about the other end of the rudder cable, you might ask? Well, I had some carbon fiber cloth left over from the last steering blade I made, so I decided to make a sleek set of carbon pedals. Now, I just need to get some stainless hinges…

The next big task was creating something to attach the iakos to. The boys at Kamanu gave me some left over carbon tubing that they used for the Pueo. I cut some channels into the foam deck and glued in the tubing. When I glass the deck, I’ll glass over the tubing, connecting it to the rest of the deck in one solid piece.

Now that the hull was just about ready to glass, I needed to come up with an ama. I took some of the 1″ foam, and laminated 3 pieces together to make a 3″ wide by about 5′ long chunk of foam to shape the ama out of. I used the Pueo ama as a guide, and used a hack saw and shureform to rough out a mini ama. I think it came out pretty well. Now, I need to put in some carbon tubing to accept the iakos, and glass the whole thing…

Well, that’s it. A bunch of pieces waiting for assembly. I need to do some final sanding and a bunch of glassing… The last “parts” I need to acquire are the iakos and a seat. Getting closer! I’ll post some more once I get some more work done.

Aloha,
Eric

Mele Kalikimaka!

Administrator — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:12:52 +0000

Aloha, and Mele Kalikimaka!
The winter solstice has passed, the days are getting longer, and 2009 is almost gone. I really wanted to get a picture of us all in the canoe for our Christmas card… Yesterday, we finally had some time where our schedules lined up, and the sun hid behind the clouds the whole time we were out (fortunately, it popped out and the lighting was perfect right after we put the canoe away…). Shane was nice enough to come take the pictures for us, even though I’m sure he had a million other things he would have rather been doing. We’re glad he did, though, because he really does an awesome job! Thanks a million Shane (and Roxy!). We couldn’t decide which picture to put on our Christmas card, so we made this little video to showcase our favorites. We hope you enjoy it.
Hau’ole Makahiki Hou!
Eric, Stacey, and Kai

Download this episode or watch on your phone. | Duration: 00:39

What a Beautiful Family!

Administrator — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:06:57 +0000

Stace and I went to the Marine Corps Ball, and Kai stayed with Aunty Rox and Uncle Shane. Shane has a relatively new camera, is REALLY GOOD at capturing awesome images, and was kind enough to come document the fact that Stace and I know how to dress up. He is quite the photog, no? The next morning, Veteran’s day, we were greeted with blustery but beautiful weather and met up with Rox, Shane and Kai at the canoe (Picutres of the canoe coming in another post…). Those are the best “beach time” pictues we have! Enjoy.

You're the one for me!

Shaka to you!

Stace and Kai

Kai the Supermodel

Kai with Lexi

One Happy Kid!

The Sailing Rig Works!

Administrator — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:33:36 +0000

There she is! Holole’a with a sail (I finished the polas, mast step, and a GIANT carbon fiber steering blade last week). It was a beautiful day and Kai and I had a great time (Stace was at an OC-6 regatta in Waimanalo)! The only problem with the rig, is that I broke it… I guess the epoxy didn’t bond well enough to the PVC, and the cup at the bottom of the mast step popped off. Not a big deal, except I tried to paddle in without dropping the sail and cracked the mast step, too… Hopefully Jay can help me either repair it or make a new one…

Despite breaking the mast step, Kai and I still had a great day. We rode our bike to the boat and set it up, then went swimming while we waited for my friend Mike. As you can see below, the mast step makes a good umbrella stand…

Anyone for lunch?

Mike came out with us for the “shake down” run, and everything worked great! He couldn’t stay long, so when he left, Kai and I took the sail down and paddled out for a swim.

Monkey on the ama

After swimming for a while we were hungry, so we put the sail back on and sailed down to Kalapawai. The boat was really fast with just the two of us (and the wind was coming up a little).

Daddy and Kai on the way to Kalapawai

I took a quick clip with the Pentax… It’s really shaky, but hey, I was steering with a paddle, working the main sheet, and trying to film all at the same time… I didn’t do any editing, as I only have 20 seconds of video… … and, I’m lazy!

We made it to the beach by Kalapawai in record time. Kai had mac and cheese, and I had a “beach burger”. Tasty. After we ate, we were getting ready to sail back… The wind had come up a little more, and I was worried about sailing back without a safety ama (we would be on a port tack all the way back to Lanikai without an “ama mama” to hold the ama down). I was going to just paddle us, but with all the attention the boat drew, we ended up with an “ama mama” volunteer. Spectacular! AJ threw on her rash guard, and we were off! Unfortunately, we didn’t get far before we heard a CRACK! I knew right away what had popped. Crappy epoxy… Not a big deal, we could just paddle back. We cruised back to the beach to let AJ off (cracked the step enroute…), dropped the sail, and paddled back. While we were putting the boat away, Dan stopped in to say hi. He was a huge help, and took the paddles and the mast step home for me. Made the bike ride home much easier! Thanks, Dan! Dan actually came out and paddled with me yesterday. We had a blast and caught a couple waves at flat island while Stace was at practice. When Stace finished practice, Dan took some great pictures of us. This one is my favorite.

Stace and Eric head to the Mokes

Kai was still with Aunty Rox, who took her on an AWESOME overnight trip to Waikiki. She and Rox lived it up! It was a “trip” Kai will never forget. Without Kai, Stace and I dropped into a couple “bombs” at “Channels”… The new paddle works GREAT! I hope you enjoyed the pixs!

Aloha!

Kaile in the Pool

Administrator — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:56:16 +0000

We went to to visit Nancy and Dave at their Waikiki resort on Saturday. We being Kai and me, as Stace was at canoe practice. Nanc and Dave were staying at the Waikiki Sheraton, and it has an AWESOME pool (Stace and I read about it in the papers and saw it on the news when it first opened). It has a waterfall and water slides, and it’s salt water, so NO CHLORINE! Kai has been out of the water for a couple weeks recovering from her pneumonia, so she was primed and ready to go swimming. And swimming she went! She was the fishiest fish EVER! Stace told her she couldn’t get her face wet because she was still getting over her pneumonia… So, the first thing she did was ask if she could go under water. From there she asked to swim to Nancy. Then she swam to Dave. She swam to daddy, she swam to the steps. She swam everywhere. She even went down the “kiddie” slide. She had so much fun, she passed out within 5 minutes of getting in the truck to go home, and she had her ballet recital that night… She was a little grumpy about getting ready, but she snapped out of it, “rallied, and sprung a few leaks”. Her recital was, to quote Dave, “a bucket of cuteness”. We’ll try and post the video of that, once we get it. Until then, here is the pool video… Aloha.

The weather improved!

Administrator — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:54:45 +0000

We gave up on the weather, and were headed over the hill to waste some time, when I got a call. The weather is clearing up, and the surf is AWESOME!!! We pulled a U’ey and zoomed back home. I threw the board in the truck and headed to Lanikai Reef. The sets were still pretty giant – the channel between Lefts Lefts and Wraps was completely closed out on the bigger sets, but once I punched through, I took a off on a couple second story bombs. It was SWEET! While I was out, I noticed a 4-man with only 3 paddlers. I paddled over to see who it was, and they invited me to join. I left my board on the Mokes and climbed in. We got a bunch of fun waves, then dropping in on a giant, the steersman broke his (actually, it was Derek’s) paddle and we got donuts. The ama got ripped off and we looked like a yard sale all across Wraps. We swam the canoe to the Mokes to put it back together. No real damage. I had to take off and paddle back home to let Stace come paddle. When I grabbed my board, I saw that someone had horked my leash. WTF??? Who does that? No camera with me on that trip, so no documentation on any of the above events. But take my word for it, it was EPIC.

When I got home, Stace had the one-mans loaded, and we headed back out. With the conditions being so awesome, Mike wanted to take the Opelu 4-man (from the OC-4 surf video) out again, so this time Stace scored the ride. I put Kai on back of my Pueo and followed them out. They stayed inside (and didn’t break anything…) and got some really fun rides. I stayed long enough to snap a couple pics, then headed back (Kai was getting cranky). Kai and I played on the beach for a while, and Stace got her chance to have some fun. Pics are below. Aloha.

My Pueo with Kai's seat all ready to head out.

Stace and crew heading out.

Opelu on a wave.

Even on the inside, the waves were fun!

Eric and Kai back at the beach.

Kaile made some sand balls while we waited for Mommy.

Here comes Mommy (in seat 1)!

You think they had some fun?

Giant NE Swell 13 March

Administrator — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:32:12 +0000

When I came out of the tunnel on the way home from work, the whole east side was engulfed in one of the biggest NE swells in decades. When I got home, I had 3 voice mails about the surf… The guys were taking the Opelu out and needed more bodies. We couldn’t find anyone to watch the monkey, so only one of us could go… Stace let me go! I’m in! It was too big and closed out to get anywhere near the reef, so we surfed the reforms inside. We got one ride that went from abeam channels all the way to within 100 yards of the beach (about 1/2 mile). It was friggin’ amazing. That night I had a hard time sleeping, thinking about how awesome it was going to be the next day, but woke up to driving rain. When it let up enough to see, we went to Agnes’ for some muffins and then out to check the surf. Flat Island was flat, and Lanikai Reef and the Mokes was still bigger than normal, but really sloppy and sharky looking (lots of run-off and brown water).

Lanikai Reef is going off!!!

Kaile had fun running around on the beach. The picture below was taken with my iPhone. The light was pretty, so I ran back to the truck for the real camera…

Kaile on the beach Saturday morning.

Picture below was taken with the real camera…

Kaile still running around...

Rain came back… So we left.

Here comes some more rain.

Now, we are back home and it’s still raining… Time to find something to do.

Kaile rides her big girl bike!

Administrator — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:09:25 +0000

Holy cow! She’s up and riding on her first try! All it took was a couple weeks of running around on her Skuut. She was doing so well, I took the training wheels off her bike and asked her if she wanted to try. One run up the lane and back and she was able to ride it without me holding on (although, she likes to think I’m holding her at all times). The first time I let go, I ran up in front of her and showed her my hands. HUGE GRIN!!! She can balance like a champ.

Up and riding!

Below is a picture of her Skuut. It’s a wooden bike without any pedals. It taught her to balance on her first day riding. Two weeks later, she was ready to ride her bike…

Kaile on her Skuut with Auntie Rox and Lexie.

Kaile Goes to Flat Island

Administrator — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:38:25 +0000

Here is another little video featuring Kaile. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when she’s in a good mood, we paddle the Pueo. We usually paddle on Kaelepulu Canal, but when the weather is good, we go out in Kailua Bay. This was Tuesday, 3 Feb, and the weather was awesome. She paddled the canoe all the way to the end, then I carried it over to the beach and she climbed on back. We paddled out to “her island” and caught a couple waves enroute. Once there, we hiked to “her cave” and then paddled back. “Lucky we live Hawaii” because you just can’t beat the weather here. The music is Israel Kamakawiwa’ole, Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World. Enjoy.

Kaile goes to the Beach

Administrator — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:45:55 +0000

Here is a little video of Kaile… A fun trip to Kailua beach. We took her surf board (she calls it her boogie board) and her canoe paddle. She paddled it like a surf board and played around with it, then we put on her life jacket and she paddled it with her canoe paddle. We played and swam and generally had a “Kaile good time”. I hope you enjoy it. The music is Jack Johnson, “Upside Down” and “Jungle Gym”.
Aloha,
Eric

Our Teenie Wahine Has Arrived

Administrator — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 10:39:19 +0000

Kaile Elise Olson was born January 17, 2005. She weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces. Although we love her name, “Erica” may have been more appropriate because she looks so much like her daddy. We can hardly wait for the two of them to finally meet!