An outdoor sports enthusiast, Northern California entrepreneur Cary Acord has a background that spans windsurfing, snowboarding, paragliding, and kiteboarding. Over the past two decades Cary Acord has also engaged in Hawaiian outrigger competitions, and raced in both carbon-constructed OC-1 single canoes and long boats.
Introduced to Hawaii around 200 AD, the outrigger canoe came in a variety of sizes, including those designed to carry dozens of people, animals, water, and plants on long ocean journeys. The highly functional designs are singularly without extraneous ornamentation.
Finished outriggers were the result of extensive planning that began with the priest, or kahuna, following an elepaio bird into the forest, where it would lead to the “ideal” tree. This search had a practical side, as that particular bird species only pecked at trees that were rotten inside and thus not suitable for the rigors of weeks or months at sea.
The transportation of the selected tree to the canoe shed often required the participation of all able men in the community, with the carvers holding an exalted position in society. Once the basic shape was hewn, a black waterproofing agent made up of plant extracts and charcoal was applied, and the sacrifice of a pig or dog took place. This last act was thought to enable a symbolic tearing open of the ocean’s surface and the planting of the outrigger vessel in the sea.
