Is Flumin' Da Ditch open yet?

[EightFingers]

Wonder if they made any progress on the repairs.
Has anyone ever done it?

[DickWilson]

When we inquired before, we were told that it would not be repaired. Maybe things have changed in the past year.

dick wilson

[missydog1]

The ditch is being repaired as much as possible, by a group of community volunteers, in order to restore ag water to the community. I doubt the ride can be repaired. The tunnels sustained cracks. I did see on the company web page that they hope to reopen, but I don't know, seems like wishful thinking, or they'd have to change it to avoid the damaged areas.

[JerryCarr]

From what I hear from friends up that way, Kathy is right. They have been struggling just to get the irrigation water partially restored. The safety/liability issues of taking tours through there on top of the potential blockage and lowered water flow make it a long shot to get them going again. It's really a shame since it was such a unique experience. And I never got to do it.[]

Cheers,
Jerry

[Likalizard]

Wow [], what a ride on da "ditch". My hubby and I "boated" in the ditch back in 2000.
It was one of the best activities we did on our "touristy" visit.
I was able to take some amazing pictures while in the canal under the mountains, and in the forest, bridges and gorges that we passed through. However, I didn't have a digital camera, and the pictures we took were wicked amazing, but, they are somewhere (hopefully) with the negatives, packed away in storage. The ride took about 45 minutes and you really got splashed and wet as the ride was fast in some spots, we had to wear "raincoats" and head gear with lights. (Miner stuff). Boats were skinny canoes and in some spots the rock ceiling of the canal( tube like ) was really low, so we had to schrunch down so as not to whack our heads on the rock. It was a great time. After the earthquake, lots of damage: crakcs and cave in's. I do hope the volunteers can clear out the tubes to allow irrigation to run fully again. don't think I would want to venture in the ditch again though. When I unpack once on island, I will find the pictures to post. Aloha! Lika

[EightFingers]

It sounds like it was pretty popular, sorry I never got to ride it .
I can't really tell from their website what is really going on with it....
Maybe someone could build a giant water slide out of metal or fibergla$$. At least if there's another earthquake (and I bet there will be) it would be easier to fix.

[Devany]

There was an article in the November (I think) Hawaii magazine about the ditch. It was said at that time that when repairs are made, they will be doing the tours. However, the saddest part of the stories is about farmers having to go out of business and pay enormous amounts of money for tanked in water. Naturally, their water is far more important than the tours. However, in the article it was stressed that the tours really were a boon to the Hawai community and also a benefit to teaching others about the amazing system built so many years ago. I have a friend who lives up above Waipio Valley who still has a working flume on her property and they use it to irrigate. Since they have had such a drought up that way the last year it has been important to them.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com

[Guest]

You guys might be interested in Richard Ha's post here and here.