2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg 2-28-2011
Read More
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg was elected to Life Membership in the Outrigger Canoe Club at the Annual Meeting. With him is wife of 50+ years Aggie Quigg.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg was elected to Life Membership in the Outrigger Canoe Club at the Annual Meeting. With him is wife of 50+ years Aggie Quigg.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg, a master builder of water sports equipment, who built the Outrigger Canoe Club's koa canoe Kaoloa, was elected to Life Membership in the Club at the Annual Meeting.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg was made a member of the Club's elite Winged "O" in 2005. Joe spent his lifetime building canoes, surfboards, paddleboards, boats, and the OC1.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
In this 1985 photo, Joe Quigg is shown using a chain saw to shape the koa log that was used to make the Kaoloa racing canoe. He notes that was a very unique thing for a member of a canoe club to build their own canoe. Outrigger paddlers won the log by scoring the most points in regatta season in 1983. The canoe was finished and blessed in 1986 and Outrigger won a record number of gold medals the first regatta season, plus the OHCRA and HCRA State Championships in the Kaoloa.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
One of Joe's proudest moments was in 1990 when the Kaoloa won the Molokai Hoe setting a record for the crossing. It was the last koa to win Molokai. Front: Mark Sandvold, Chris Kincaid, Walter Guild, Mark Rigg. Standing: Coach Steve Scott, Tom Conner, Bruce Black, Geoff Graf, Courtney Seto, Keone Downing.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
This is Joe's favorite photo of the Kaoloa as it crossed the Molokai Channel toward Diamond Head and winning the 1990 Molokai Hoe. This is the original Kaoloa with its original ama, hau tree 'iako, and the unchanged koa hull shape.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
This photo is taken at the Outrigger Canoe Club beach during the relaunching of the completely remodeled Manu Ula fiberglass canoe. The canoe was originally built and designed by Tom Conner. It was built to the maximum 45-feet length allowed by HCRA rules. The Manu Ula won a lot of races, including the Molokai Hoe. Tom Conner was a very talented designer and builder of race-winning water equipment, Joe said. Tom was always experimenting. He had cut almost four-feet off of both ends of Manu Ula, but there was some sort of mix up with Tom and the Outrigger Canoe Club, and the Manu Ula sat on the racks for a long time with no ends on the hull. Coach Steve Scott made arrangements with the Club to get it back in the water. So Steve commissioned Joe to do a complete remodeling: new ends, back to 45-feet, new seats, wider higher back end, etc. It turned out to be a very fast hull, but was so skinny it was sort of tracked in. That could have been fixed easily, Joe says, by widening the back end but instead the Club sold the canoe. Joe thought it could have been a winner.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
The Kaoloa at Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Base in 1986 for its first regatta where it did so well. In Hawaiian, Kaoloa means long spear. Walter Guild had been calling it the "rocket" all through the construction. In Hawaiian, the word Kaoloa also means sky rocket. So that's how the name was selected. Such a natural choice for this canoe; It was so spear like, long and fast, says Joe.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
In 1990 Joe wrote, "These are the very special ones . . . our senior six. . . that did the very special thing for a koa boat. They came in first in the Molokai Race beating all those fiberglass canoes and set a new record time for the course. The canoe is nothing without such an awesome crew. Front: Bruce Black, Scott Rolles, Keone Downing. Back: Marc Haine, Kainoa Downing, Walter Guild, Coach Steve Scott, Mark Rigg, Chris Kincaid and Tom Conner.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
In 2001 Outrigger asked Joe Quigg to provide a design template for the remodeling of the koa canoe Kakina that would provide the best features of the Bradley and the Mirage fiberglass canoes. Joe provided this and Outrigger maintenance supervisor Domie Gose worked on patching the canoe during the day and Joe came at night and would do the grinding. They stand side by side at the blessing of the Kakina when it was finished.
Blessing the Kakina 2000
The blessing of the remodeled Kakina in 2001. Joe Quigg and Domie Gose worked on the remodel of the koa canoe.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
"These are our best senior paddlers of this era, in the Molokai Race," says Joe Quigg. "They are leading the way into Waikiki. The unique thing is they are in the Koa class, beating all the fiberglass class canoes. Brant Ackerman is steering and our best seniors paddling." In 1983 Joe Quigg had just completely remodeled and lengthened the Outrigger Canoe Club's oldest racing canoe, Leilani, by sawing it in half and filling in the gap with koa to make the canoe about 3-feet longer. This brought it up closer to the maximum length of the HCRA rules. Joe also slit the front end vertically, so the front end would be narrower and cut the water more smoothly. The 43-foot catamaran in the background, is owned by OCC member Joey Cabell, and was designed and built by Quigg. All in all, it was a very proud day for the Outrigger and for Joe Quigg. The Leilani won the Molokai Hoe in 1983, 1984 and 1985, surfing to a record finish of 5:18:19.62 in 1984. This was the fastest crossing of the Molokai Channel ever by a koa canoe and set a record for overall finish.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
"This is a group of our best long-time paddlers," says Joe Quigg, "with the Outrigger's fiberglass canoe, Kila Kila." Quigg designed and shaped the fiberglass canoe which was manufactured by the Fiberglass Shop, owned by Outrigger Canoe Club members Walter Guild and Jeff Kissel. The canoe became known as the Hawaiian Class Racer. "The Fiberglass Shop must have built thousands of them," Quigg said. "The canoe was so fast and well-liked that none of the other canoe builders could match it. All the Hawaiian Class Racers were alike, so anyone could come from out of town and have an equal chance of winning. This caused the sport of canoe racing, and especially the Molokai Race, to grow by leaps and bounds, growing and attracting paddlers internationally and from around the world." Walter and Jeff built and merchandised and achieved a new concept of operating that changed the world of paddling into an ever growing sport. Joe Quigg shaped the plug for the hull mold and ama mold and other parts and pieces, 'iako and ama.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Outrigger Canoe Club's senior men in 1986 at the Kaoloa's first regatta when it was new, narrow and fast. They are way ahead in first place but, just for the joy of it, they are pouring it on full speed, coming into the finish line.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
The start of a paddleboard race at the Outrigger Canoe Club using a new kind of paddleboard designed by Joe Quigg. According to Joe, Cline Mann was putting on the Diamond Head Paddleboard Race but the cost, and storage problems with the old 20 foot open class board was killing the sport. So Cline asked Joe to come to a meeting of knowledgeable paddlers to figure out what could be done to get more people back into the sport. Joe suggested to Cline that the most economical and easiest to own would be to have a simple rule like a 12' foot long and 20-pound board that could be built in any backyard out of a Clark 12' foot foam blank. No rudder. The group liked the idea so Cline commissioned Joe to build a prototype for him to show the prospective paddlers the new class. The new paddleboard caught on right away and started growing. Cline assisted the acceptance by making race rules for this class board. He also made entry into the Outrigger paddleboard races free to everyone, including lunch afterward and a t-shirt. Paddleboard builders are allowed to make boards lighter now, but otherwise the idea of a 12-foot class has gone on internationally and is still popular today. Outrigger has these paddleboards in its collection. Cline Mann may be seen on the far right of the photo.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
In this 1956 photo Joe Quigg is shown at the old Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikiki with one of his super light paddleboards which was 20-feet long, 16" wide and weighed 16 pounds. Joe says in testing various racing paddleboards he accidentally got into good condition and learned how to paddle faster. So he built this paddleboard for himself. The Diamond Head Paddleboard Race was a big event in those days. George Downing beat Joe, but they both were faster than the old record time by several minutes. Downing was the fastest paddler at that time. However, Joe was closer to him in the shorter races, and finally did beat George in a quarter-mile race. Joe had wanted to paddle for the Outrigger in a 6-man canoe but they didn't want him, he says. That's partly why he got started in building racing paddleboards.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
The surfski at the top of this photo is a Hayden that is all molded like Tom Zahn's racing paddleboard. Before Hayden saw Tom's paddleboard at the Australian Olympics, Hayden's surfkis were all boxy plywood. At the bottom of the picture is a photo of the first ever one-man outrigger canoe. The man sits on top of the board with the 'iaku rigged in front of and behind the paddler. Dale Hope is paddling this canoe in front of the Outrigger Canoe Club. Joe says for years he had been begging Tommy Holmes to let him build a one-man sit on top. He and Aka Hemmings were threatening to paddle the Molokai Channel, but, he wouldn't go for it. He wanted something more Hawaiian looking, where you sit inside and have to bail the water out. So Joe built him a super light version of what he asked for. But Dale Hope and Gaylord Wilcox liked Joe's idea. So he built each one of them the first two sit on top one-man canoes. That was the beginning of that new class of outrigger canoe that has gone around the world and is now known as an OC-1.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg in 1944 in Malibu at age 19.
Tom Zahn and Joe Quigg
Tom Zahn and Joe Quigg on the beach in Santa Monica in the 1940s with paddleboards they designed.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg built the first shaped surfboard in 1938 in Malibu.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg, left, built his first bodyboard in 1929 at age four in Malibu, California. He's built thousands of surfboards in the 82 years since then. He's built all different innovative designs and construction methods that have caused a transition in the sport of surfing through different eras. That caused changes in riding styles. His designs were so successful that when all the new surf shapes started in 1953 they all copied his kind of surfboard and his direction of riding style. He says the pro contest surfers and kids today are still copying what he basically started.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg surfing in Malibu in 1951.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg surfing in Malibu in 1949.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg surfboards were well-known in Southern California in the 1940s and 1950s. He joined the Outrigger Canoe Club in 1953.
2011 New Life Member Joe Quigg
Joe Quigg and his wife Aggie go canoe surfing at the Outrigger Canoe Club.