Mike Kincaid, former 'Cat football player mentioned: Kailua on the Water

Part of an article from
April 2006
Honolulu Magazine

Kailua on the Water

The heart of Kailua may not be on land at all, but in the ocean, where generations of Kailuans have found adventure, recreation, even comfort.

There’s no shortage of people in Kailua who were born, raised and never left because of the water. I was fortunate enough to find more than a handful who were willing to share their thoughts on why.

"As soon as I could walk I was making little canoes out of corrugated tin roofing and tar," says Mike Kincaid, who was born on what was called the "Bishop Track" of Kailua in 1946--dairy farm land, which ran all the way to where Enchanted Lake now sits. "We would see who could make a canoe that could get all the way to the mouth of the river. When we got too old for that, we began paddling out to Flat Island for surf sessions."

Kincaid still recalls the handful of summer cottages on Lanikai Beach, hanging with the cowboys who tended to the dairy farms at Campos Dairy (where Daiei now is), and surfing the shore-breaks at Kalama.

In 1986, Kincaid helped launch the Naholokai Sailing Canoe Race series, to revive and teach Hawaiian sailing techniques. That same year, nine sailing canoes lined the bay in Kailua, and the sight alone hooked Kincaid--who had recently returned from a decade on the Mainland--on spending the majority of his time sailing her waters. Since then, he has participated every year in the event, which occurs in 72-hour stints between April and October, and sails between all the major Islands before returning to Kailua.

"It teaches you a lot about the ocean. It teaches you more about yourself. The experience is a cleansing, of sorts," shares Kincaid, who was president of the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association for 18 years. "It’s a spiritual journey that can be fluid and graceful at 10 or 12 knots, or exciting at over 20 knots. Either way, Kailua is the greatest training ground for a sailor. It’s full of unadulterated, head-on trade winds. Anyone can paddle or sail downwind. But you have to learn to do both into the wind before you consider yourself any type of waterman."