KAILUA-KONA — As Eddie Hayward went down a wave in his outrigger canoe off Kohanaiki Point and saw the shadow and pectoral fin of a whale approach him, he said, “you just wanted to hit the pause button and just stop everything.”
“Just like, ‘OK, what’s about to happen right now?” he said. “‘And how do I adjust?”
It’s one of those — you never think about it’s going to happen, you know? Because you’re having so much fun and, soon as it happened, my whole body went numb and … I don’t know, you just kinda just wait for impact.”
Hayward, who teaches seventh- through 12th-grade Hawaiian language at Ke Kula O Ehunuikaimalino, had gone out for a paddle Friday afternoon with three others, planning to go from OTEC Point to Honokohau Harbor.
As they got to Kohanaiki Point, the final stretch to Honokohau Harbor, Hayward said, paddlers started to find their own line and he started to make his way in with the other three paddlers on the outside of him.
“I got on a wave, I was enjoying it and then all of a sudden, just saw this dark shadow from underneath going north as I was going south and then I just saw this fin like it was gonna surface,” he said.
Another paddler, Ina Ynigues, said from his perspective, Hayward was about 300 yards in front of him and to his left, about 3/4 mile off the shoreline — the closest to shore of the four paddlers — and between Kohanaiki and Kaloko ponds.
“I looked again,” he said. “And then I see his ama just up in the air and I was like, ‘What? And then I see his canoe sideways, and I was like, ‘Oh!’”
Enough of the whale’s pectoral fin had come out of the water, busted the canoe’s front iako, which connects the main hull to the ama or outrigger, and went through the ama. The back iako also broke, Hayward, said.
Hayward was bucked from the canoe and the wind started to carry it away. He swam to it, he said, and grabbed it, which is when he noticed the canoe’s ama, was “all in half.”
“I just kinda grabbed onto my canoe as a floating device,” he said. “I was just kinda hoping somebody saw me.”
Ynigues, who said he had seen Hayward in his canoe just 15-20 seconds before the hit, didn’t hesitate before heading Hayward’s way.
“I don’t second guess or nothing,” he said. “If anybody — any of my friends or family or anyone — it’s just a reaction. You go and you help no matter what, no matter what the situation.”
When Ynigues got to Hayward, they initially tried salvaging everything, Hayward said, but given the conditions, they had to leave the iakos and ama and put Hayward’s hull between the hull and ama of Ynigues’ canoe.
With Hayward seated directly behind Ynigues in the latter’s canoe, they started making their way toward shore.
Eventually, they were able to get the attention of a boat in the area from Jack’s Diving Locker, which came to pick them up.
Ynigues said had no doubts when he heard it was a whale that took out Hayward’s canoe, saying he regularly tells people whales are among the scariest things in the ocean.
“Believe it or not, the scariest thing out there when you’re on your OC-1, or even standup, or even blue-water diving, anything in the ocean other than a real boat/vessel, the scariest thing is one whale,” he said. “You don’t know where they’re gonna breach, you don’t know when they’re gonna come up and just slap their tails or whatever. You don’t know ever.”
Although his ama is lost at sea, Hayward said, he feels lucky that he’s coming away with just a damaged canoe.
“If I was another 5 foot over where the ama was and my hull was there, I mean it could’ve been worse,” he said. “It would’ve definitely hit the hull of the canoe and, of course where it hits in the middle of the ama, that’s kinda where I sit in the canoe.
“So I mean, I was lucky to not sustain any bodily injuries,” he added. “If anything, just more hurt feelings and just a bit shocked how it all went down.”
Hayward said he wants to use the experience to bring awareness to others who enjoy the ocean and educate them about keeping incidents like this one in mind when out in the water.
“It is whale season time and I think we need to be more aware of this time of the season and wind conditions, using the buddy system and then coming up with a plan of ‘What are we going to do when things happen?’” he said.
That includes possibly wearing whistles or other ways to draw attention in the event a person is in distress.
Already, he said, a couple people have already told him that they’d never think about something like this happening and they’ve determined to always use the buddy system and not go out alone.
Hayward hasn’t let the incident keep him out of the water, saying he went back out to paddle Saturday morning.
“I think I needed to get on that to just break through that instead of kinda walking in fear or fear of the water,” he said. “I enjoy the water, but definitely want to be respectful at the same time.”
“I think going out this morning was just a matter of just a closure, a closure and then knowing that everything’s alright and things happen for a reason.”
