UH Study Finds Outrigger Canoe Paddling Boosts Lifelong Physical and Cultural Health

A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa study published in Health Promotion International confirms that outrigger canoe paddling supports physical, emotional, cultural and spiritual health across the life span, with 47 percent of the 362 statewide participants identifying as Native Hawaiian and cultural connection emerging as a more powerful motivator for long-term participation than health goals alone.

The study was led by Simone Schmid, an adjunct assistant professor in the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health's Department of Public Health Sciences and director of strategy, impact and research at AccesSurf Hawaiʻi. Co-authors include DPHS professors Tetine Sentell, Carrie Soo Hoo, Catherine Pirkle, Michael Phillips and Mika Thompson, with additional collaboration from the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and AccesSurf Hawaiʻi.

Researchers analyzed open-ended responses to a single question: "What does outrigger canoe paddling mean to you?" Of the 362 paddlers who replied, 65 percent were female. Their answers spanned a wide range of meanings, from physical fitness, stress relief and teamwork to family traditions, pride, connection to the ocean and ʻāina, cultural heritage, spirituality and a sense of purpose rooted in ancestry. To capture that spiritual dimension, researchers adapted a social-ecological model to explicitly include it as a category, a methodological step that sets this study apart from prior UH work documenting paddling's physical benefits among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

Ann Yoshida, a paddler and community author with AccesSurf Hawaiʻi, captured the ancestral thread running through many responses. "Paddling across the world representing Hawaiʻi and the USA, I felt connected to my island home and culture because my ancestors knew through navigation that the water was our highway to connect with the world," Yoshida said. "I knew if I was in water, I was home and I never felt alone. This power pushed me to live my extraordinary life."

That kind of testimony reflects what the study frames as a strengths-based approach to public health. "We are very proud to see the global dissemination of this important work from Hawaiʻi around strengths-based public health promotion, relevant to our communities," said Sentell.

Schmid described the project's ethos plainly: "This is a study from paddlers, with paddlers, for paddlers."

A related effort now underway aims to quantify precisely how vigorous paddling is by establishing metabolic equivalents, or METs, for the sport. At a recent data collection event at Keʻehi Lagoon, paddlers including Hawaiian Canoe Club steerswoman Kaulu Luʻuwai were fitted with a portable metabolic analyzer that resembles a bulky respirator mask to measure the body's physiological response while on the water. Schmid, also a Lanikai Canoe Club paddler, is co-leading that study.

"Once we have the corresponding METs values for outrigger canoe paddling, we can link it to all the existing research that proves the benefits of moderate to vigorous activity without having to start from ground zero, since the literature on paddling is very scarce," Schmid said. She noted that METs would allow comparison of paddling against roughly 800 other physical activities with established values, including hula, and could support increased grant funding for canoe clubs and potential health insurance coverage for the activity.

The sport's reach across age groups was on display at the 2024 World Sprint Championships in Hilo, where an 80-and-over women's outrigger canoe team from Maui competed, illustrating the lifelong dimension the study documents.