Welcome to Carolina Outrigger — home of the Hyco Lake Outrigger Canoe Ohana and the Carolina Cooters racing team. Open water, world-class coaching, and a paddling family for every Carolinian who wants one.
Come paddle with us → Learn moreWe brought outrigger canoeing home to North Carolina with one goal: get more Carolinians on the water. Whether that means an easy sunrise paddle, a regional race podium, or a world stage, we have a crew for you.
Hyco Lake Outrigger Canoe Ohana. Our recreational club. Built for people who want to get on the water, build fitness, and find their paddle people. No racing pressure, no experience required.
"Ohana" means family — a respectful nod to the Polynesian roots of the sport that gave us this beautiful boat. We're learning, we're paddling, and we're glad you're here.
An outrigger canoe is a long, sleek hull with a stabilizing float (the ama) lashed to one side. It's the boat that taught Polynesian voyagers to cross oceans. We paddle the recreational and racing versions on Hyco Lake — solo, two-person, and six-person crews.
Outrigger paddling is a Polynesian gift to the world. We didn't invent it and we don't pretend to — we're North Carolinians who fell in love with the sport, and we paddle it with respect and gratitude.
But we are also from somewhere. So we wanted a team identity that's honestly of this place.
The river cooter (Pseudemys concinna) is a freshwater turtle native to the rivers and lakes of the Carolinas. They look unbothered. They're not — they're surprisingly fast swimmers and they cover serious distance. And here's what we couldn't believe when we found it: young river cooters have a natural pattern of yellow swirls on their shells, and the second side scute almost always shows a clear, distinct C.
A Carolina turtle. With a C on its shell. Nature did the branding for us.
That's the Carolina Cooters Outrigger Racing Team. Welcoming, unbothered, full of laughter, and faster than you'd guess.
Same cooter, three moods — chill on the lake, paddle in claws, locked in.
Team mark — placeholder design while the final artwork is in commission.
Carolina Outrigger is an ECORA-sanctioned club. CCORT crews compete on the East Coast Outrigger Racing Association circuit.
One team, four crews. Move up as you grow.
Four-time World Champion paddler, USAORCA Elite Coach, and the founder of Carolina Outrigger. April didn't grow up in this sport — she grew up inland in North Carolina and found the water through marine science, earning her Master's in Deep Sea Coral Reef Ecology at UNC Wilmington. Her first paddle was in 2011. Within a few years she'd gone from couch potato to world champion: three-time SUP World Champion, APP World Tour World Champion, two-time Carolina Cup Graveyard Champion, Gorge Downwind OC1 Champion, and a Pan American Surfing Games gold medalist.
Today she trains and coaches Team USA's elite outrigger paddlers on the world stage, runs Athlete Agenda and Paddle Barn, and operates Ozone Carolinas — the official Outrigger Zone dealer at Hyco Lake. April's coaching is what she calls the 360°: technique, training, mindfulness, and nutrition working together.
She'll be on the water this week. Wave hello.
First-time paddlers, racers, honorary Cooters — hit us up. We'll get you on the water.
