About Captain Kiko

Captain Kiko (pronounced kee-ko) loves the Hawaiian culture. He enjoys exploring gulches, shorelines and swimming holes around the island. He is an expert guide to the island of Hawaii’s beautiful seas and shores. An excursion with Captain Kiko will be the highlight of your Hawaiian vacation.

Captain Kiko was born in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. His family moved to Hilo on the island of Hawaii when he was about five years old. He remembers reading a book at 7 years old in the Hilo Boys Club Library – Kodoku, Sailing Alone Across the Pacific by Kenichi Horie. He had his first sailboat at age 14 and his first captain’s license at age 18.

Kiko’s dad was born in Waikiki and was a builder of surfboards and surfing outrigger canoes. His dad’s high school paper was on Hawaiian double canoes. One of Captain Kiko’s earliest memories of canoe surfing are in canoes that his dad built in their garage.

Kiko’s interest in geology came from his mom who was born in Hilo, Hawaii and was secretary to the volcanologist at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

At 14 years old he sailed to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on a 40 foot Canadian trimaran. He has sailed from Hawaii to Canada and California several times and back home from Puget Sound, Washington to Hawaii.

He studied seamanship and navigation under Captain David B.K. Lyman and Captain Norman Pi’ianaia. He apprenticed at age 19 in Port Townsend, Washington at two different boat-builders -- Cecil Lange and Sons, and Seven Seas Boatworks.

He was put through boatbuilding school at the L.H. Vocational-Technical Institute of Tacoma by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Medicine Creek Treaty Nation. While at boatbuilding school he built the 42-foot proa (outrigger canoe) named “La Ho’iho’i Ea” (means day of sovereignty returned).

Captain Kiko is married and has two sons. His family members sometimes participate with him on his excursions. He has been building and sailing traditional Hawaiian canoes in Hawaii for over 30 years.