In the beginning...

Rick Nu'u and Don Irvine met in the winter of 1990 in New Zealand. They became good friends and chased each other around the world for years of paddling with and against each other, with mutual admiration. In 2009, Rick, his wife Zoe and their two daughters moved to where Don's family lived, the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island in Canada.

In 2011, Rick and Don achieved a long time shared dream and established a paddlesport oriented business, which they named Hana Hou Outrigger. It was geared towards the manufacture of wood canoe paddles and providing coaching opportunities in a wide variety of paddlesports. If you look at their fish hook logo, inside the two hooks you can find an 'r' and 'd'.

Zoe was heavily involved in the background of this business, most visually with our website, most effectively with her organizational skill, but most influentially as our sounding board.


In January of 2013 Rick's life ended. The business stopped. Zoe and Don struggled in their own ways to come to terms with this tremendous loss. Time passed. Healing started.

New Beginnings...

When Rick and Zoe lived on Maui, they became close friends with Wendy and Michael Giblin, who were at that time, just starting up Outriggerzone (OZone). When R&Z moved to Canada, they had hoped to be able to rep OZone canoes, but there was already a dealer in western Canada at that time. Around the time that we lost Rick, however, that rep position opened up so...

In 2013, Zoe and Don became the Western Canadian distributors for Outriggerzone, and Hana Hou Paddlesports was created. In 2025, Don retired from Hana Hou. His unparalleled expertise, experience and skillset are greatly missed, but Zoe still knows where to find him when she needs advice!

With the growth of the paddling community in western Canada has come the growth of our business, and in order to keep up and better serve our region, we took the step into online sales. Providing personalized service is still our focus, so please don't hesitate to contact us directly!

M. Sc.

Zoe Norcross-Nu'u

OWNER - Hana Hou Paddlesports

Zoe has been competing internationally in outrigger canoe and surf ski racing since 1996. Her professional background is in coastal and marine sciences, and she has always enjoyed using physical oceanography concepts to make wave riding more enjoyable.

Zoe Norcross-Nu'u is an accomplished paddler and marine scientist. While pursuing her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Coastal Geology at the University of Hawaii, Zoe began paddling surfski and outrigger canoe.

In 1999, she was a member of the first crew to paddle "iron" from Molokai to Oahu in a 6-person outrigger canoe in nearly 50 years. This crossing also marked the first time that a women's outrigger crew had ever crossed the Kaiwi Channel iron. With three top-five finishes in Na Wahine O Ke Kai, as well as top three finishes in both the Molokai World Championship surfski race and the Molokai to Oahu OC-1 relay, Zoe's real love is for downwind paddling.

After 13 years of living in Hawaii where she paddled, worked in coastal resource management, and taught marine science courses at the University of Hawaii Maui College, Zoe has returned home to coastal British Columbia where she manages her small farm, works for the regional government in watershed protection, and operates Hana Hou Paddlesports with the support of many awesome friends.

Zoe continues to race outrigger canoes and surfskis. Recent-ish accomplishments include a gold medal at the IVF world distance champs in Samoa in 2023 (40's women), and first place overall in elite women's surfski at the Gorge Downwind Champs in 2026.