Hanalei resident Kevin Horgan reached a high point as a Hawai‘i waterman yesterday. Accompanied by an escort boat, Horgan, 41, became the first to paddle across the 72-mile Kaua‘i Channel beach-boy style — standing on top of a board and
Hanalei resident Kevin Horgan reached a high point as a Hawai‘i waterman yesterday.
Accompanied by an escort boat, Horgan, 41, became the first to paddle across the 72-mile Kaua‘i Channel beach-boy style — standing on top of a board and rowing with an oar.
Horgan paddled for 21 hours before landing at Kalapaki Beach in Lihu‘e around 2 p.m. yesterday.
Greeting him was his four-year-old daughter, his wife, Nikki, and Jack Gillen, another standup paddler who started with Horgan but bowed out some seven hours into the trip because of sea sickness.
The Kaua‘i channel crossing is the fourth such crossing of channels in Hawai‘i Horgan has made since the beginning of summer, Horgan’s wife said.
“Part of the reason is that it has never been done, and he likes these kinds of challenges,” she said.
Other paddlers from Hawai‘i have paddled canoes or rode on sailboards to cross the Kaua‘i Channel in the past.
But Horgan’s method was one-of-a-kind, his wife said.
She said it was her understanding that the first paddled crossing of the channel was done by a Hawaiian man in a canoe in the 1930s.
“But we don’t know for sure,” Nikki said. “That is what we heard.”
The only setback occurred when rolling waves — some as tall as 8 feet — plowed into him at night and knocked him off the board, said Don Jones, who skippered the 34-foot chase boat.
“The channel was lively last night, to say the least,” Jones said. “ Waves were 5 to 7 feet, and some 8-foot waves were rolling through. He had some trials and tribulations with the water.”
But once the moon came up, he was able to anticipate the arrival of the rogue waves and stay on the board, Jones said.
Nikki said her husband and those on Jones’s escort boat witnessed a rare sight at sea.
“The moon was really bright,” she said. “There must have been some rain. And they saw a white rainbow.”
Nikki said she is confident of her husband’s athletic ability, but kept track of her husband’s progress by calling Jones on his cell phone.
Her husband and Big Island resident Jack Gillen launched from Ka‘ena Point on O‘ahu at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Jones and two crew members from Kaua‘i, Calvin Saffrey and John Fitzgerald, monitored Horgan’s progress.
On a separate 30-foot escort boat, Capt. Mike Foster and his two crew members, Alan Redden and a cameraman from ESPN, a friend of Gillen’s, checked for the safety and progress of Gillen on the trip.
Gillen, whom Capt. Jones said was in tip-top shape, got seasick between 11:30 p.m. and midnight and ended his dream of finishing the trip with Horgan.
“He was a little disappointed, because he is a great paddler,” Jones said.
Gillen’s escort boat eventually transported him to Nawiliwili.
As Horgan began his approach to Kaua‘i, fatigue began to set in, but he didn’t let it bother him, Jones said.
“He didn’t get cold or sick, and he asked everyone else how they were doing,” Jones said. “He was in a good mood.”
Horgan has been surfing since he was 11 years old, and recently took up standup paddling to do something else during the summer months when the waters in Hanalei Bay, a favorite surfing spot, are calm and flat, Nikki said.
Some of Kevin Horgan’s motivation to complete crossing was Harry Horgan, his 49-year-old brother who lives in Miami.
He became wheelchair-bound in a car accident that occurred just before he graduated from college more than 20 years ago, Nikki said.
Her husband always saw his brother as a role model, because of the way he overcome challenges in life.
A sailor and athlete, Harry Horgan helps run the Shake-A-Leg-Miami program in Florida. Proponents of program strive to bring hope, confidence, social integration, independence and fun back into the lives of people with disabilities and their families.
Participants, for instance, are taught how to sail boats.
To prepare for the channel crossing, Kevin Horgan paddled up the Hanalei River at 3 a.m. on certain days or paddled in Hanalei Bay, Nikki said.
She said her husband has competed in ultra-marathons in Hong Kong and Japan, where he lived for a while and where she met him.
But his first love after her is the water.
“He said it is probably the most intense, satisfying experience he can have,” she said. “And he says he can feel the mana.”
• Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@kauaipubco.com.
