Is the Malia canoe still in use today?
5.0 Canoe Designs Up until 2004, the Malia class of canoe was used by the California Outrigger Association [KOA] as a division of sprint racing. This division has now been dropped; replaced by the Bradley and ‘Spec’ divisions. Spec canoes include the Mirage, Force Five and Striker canoes which are also popular in California and fall under the 400lb weight limit. Throughout the Hawaiian islands and Canada there are many Malia canoes which are used for training and a few also in Australia where they were made for a short time. 5.8 When did new designs begin to emerge? It was not until the mid 1970’s that the Malia design began to be rethought, due largely to the influence brought across the Pacific by those other brilliant maritime architects and canoe paddlers, the Tahitians. The Tahitians had devised canoes that were substantially longer, lighter and narrower, which made them extremely fast and are often referred to as “Rockets”. Participating in their first ever Moloka’i to Oahu race
