A tough group of Hong Kong-based women are flexing their muscles on the oceans of the world
A Hong Kong Outriggers Canoe Club team competed in the treacherous waters of the Ka'iwi Channel in a 66km paddle and finished a credible 15th out of 60 crews
One of the world's most treacherous waters, the Ka'iwi Channel, stretches 42 kilometres and 700 metres deep between the Hawaiian islands of Molokai and Oahu. It's subjected to foul weather and big swells, but that doesn't stop the 700 women who take part in the 66-kilometre Na Wahine O Ke Kai paddle race across it each year. Conditions were so rough during the 2012 race that 10 canoes were swamped just on the way to the start.
So when Katherine Lynch, club coach of the Hong Kong Outriggers Canoe Club (HKOCC), suggested taking a team for the 2014 race, it's no surprise she was met with doubt.
"And after a while I just got really tired of it. I knew there was no reason why we couldn't get together and train properly, go overseas and compete against the rest of the world," she says.
More than anything, you want people who aren't afraid of pain. You're in a big ocean, riding waves and you need to have a really instinctive response
A team of women from the HKOCC duly completed the race in September, finishing 15th in Women's Open's Division out of 60 teams in six hours, 17 minutes, beating many international women's teams from Hawaii, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It was the first time a single Hong Kong paddling club had manned a full women's team.
"Tell people you finished 42nd in that race and they would be impressed - it's a huge achievement," says Lynch, a law professor at Hong Kong University from Canada. A college athlete, she's been paddling for over 24 years and established the city's first and only Breast Cancer Survivor Dragonboat Team in 2006.
The women's team were also second in the women's iron division in a 42-kilometre race across the Pailolo Channel from Maui to Molokai Island the week earlier.
The sport, which involves a thin-hulled canoe supported by an outrigger raced in teams of two, six or solo, has grown in Hong Kong in recent years, particularly among women, thanks in part to Lynch. As women's captain at the VRC Club for many years, Lynch was instrumental in setting up the HKOCC in 2003 to focus on outrigger racing.