Ocean-Going Racing Canoes, Molokai, HI
The prow of the near boat is 10 feet above the ground. The boats are 50 feet long. I was pressed against the side of the enclosure with a 24-105mm zoom lens at 24mm on an APS-C camera, and this was the best composition I could create. There was nothing I could use for sense of scale in the scene.
These canoes are used for races through the Kaiwi channel between Molokai and Waikiki on Oahu, HI. Such races have taken place for hundreds of years for the pleasure of Hawaiian kings. Legend is that losers of long-ago races lost more than just a day out on the ocean.
The Kaiwi channel is one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world. Wind and wave energy that travel unchecked over thousands of miles of open North Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Hawaii, creating the highest surf in the world when they slam into the north shores of Oahu and Maui, roar through the 70-mile-wide channel, and can, and often do, capsize such canoes as well as the largest sailboats made.
I met some crew members. All of Samoan-Hawaiian descent. I didn't know such huge human beings existed. Nice guys, though. A team of five easily carried one of the canoes to the water. I couldn't lift even one of the oars.
Rich