Guiding Light (Hana Hou!)
The Makapo Aquatics Project levels the paddling field for the visually impaired.
Cooperative Outrigger Paddling, or CoOP (rhymes with “scoop”), [is] a remote control rudder system designed by Mark Baldwin, a Makapo board member and researcher at the University of California, Irvine. Baldwin began developing the CoOP system in 2018, when RJ De Rama expressed a desire for blind paddlers to be able to train on OC1s. The challenge aligned with Baldwin’s research in assistive technology, and with his knowledge of software engineering and industrial design—and input from the Makapo community—he manufactured a working prototype. … A remote steersman … turns a dial on a hand-held transmitter to control the rudder.
Read the full article in Hana Hou!