Ex-paddler visits an old koa 'friend'

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Jim Fernie, 84, a crew member on Duke Kahanamoku's outrigger canoe team, revisits old haunts in Waikiki with sons John, left, and Jim and daughter Judy Bonner. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

During a pilgrimage to the Outrigger Canoe Club, Fernie's three children maneuvered his wheelchair to a darkened storage area in the basement. There, Fernie, 84, reached out and touched what he had come to see: the Leilani, a vintage koa outrigger canoe.

The canoe was upside-down and appeared unextraordinary among the other canoes around it. For Fernie the encounter was special.

"It was like seeing an old friend again," said Fernie, who lives at the Pohai Nani Good Samaritan Retirement Community in Kane'ohe.

"It was just a few days ago that, out of the blue, he said, 'You know, I'd really like to go down and see the Leilani again,'" said Judy Bonner, 57, Fernie's daughter. "So, my brothers, Jim and John, called the Outrigger Canoe Club and made arrangements."

Fernie recalled how the legendary Kahanamoku formed the paddling team on a whim one day in 1943.

Fernie and five of his pals, all in their 20s, were playing volleyball on the beach at the old Outrigger Canoe Club, which in those days was between the Royal Hawaiian and Moana hotels.

All at once, like a lanky apparition, Kahanamoku appeared before the men and said: "Hey, you look like you're in pretty good shape — why don't I teach you to paddle?"

The encounter led to the formation of a six-man crew, with Duke in the steersman's seat. Duke coached the team for seven years, and it, too, became legendary — the team was never defeated.

The reason: Kahanamoku.

"He was a tough hombre," said Fernie. "But he was a good coach and a fair coach. He told us exactly what to do and when to do it."

When Kahanamoku died in 1968, a funeral flotilla of canoes and boats honoring him sailed off Waikiki. Leading the procession was Duke's paddling team.

"We took his ashes out to the spot where we used to practice," said Fernie.

For years after that, members of the team paddled the Leilani to the same location and scattered flowers on the sea in memory of their friend and mentor.

"You know, they just retired the Leilani two or three years ago," said Jim Fernie Jr., 60. "Amazingly, she was raced up until the late 1990s."

By that time, though, the elder Fernie had lost touch with the craft. Yesterday, after he and the canoe were reunited, he was momentarily overwhelmed with youthful exuberance.

"I wanted to jump inside and take ride," he said with a laugh.

Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.