North Shore Paddlers’ Long-Awaited Canoe Halau Gets Underway 1 A decade after they received city funding, North Shore participants in Hawaii’s oldest sport are still waiting for a facility.
How long does it take to build a canoe halau?
That’s the question North Shore paddlers have been asking for over 10 years, since the city first committed funding for it. The money languished until Mayor Rick Blangiardi released it earlier this year.
The city’s Department of Design and Construction will now design the structure and put it out for bid, according to Nathan Serota, spokesman for the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation.
Halaus serve not just as storage areas from hostile elements like ocean waves and hull-cracking ultraviolet rays but also as places to refurbish traditional canoes and gather as a community. Fiberglass racing canoes can each cost more than $20,000 to replace.
And the issue goes deeper than finance.
