For decades, Michael Tongg gave his services to the sport of outrigger canoe paddling.

Now it's time for the paddlers to give something back.

"Paddle From The Heart" — a money-raising paddling event for Tongg and his family — will take place April 22 at Duke Kahanamoku Beach, near the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

"That's his favorite saying," said Tongg's longtime friend Anona Napoleon. "At first, we wanted to make this a small race, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized how many people know Michael. So now we're thinking that a lot of paddlers are going to show up."

Tongg, a former champion paddler and influential official for the sport of canoe paddling, has been battling lung cancer since 2003.

"I finally said let's do a canoe race for him now," Tongg's former teammate Nappy Napoleon said. "No sense waiting for him to be gone. I want him to see the race and enjoy it."

Tongg and Nappy Napoleon were teammates for Waikiki Surf Club in the 1960s and '70s. Tongg was a paddler on Waikiki Surf Club crews that won the prestigious Moloka'i Hoe in 1966, '69 and '73.

More recently, Tongg served as president of the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association for nearly 20 years. The HCRA is the governing body for team canoe paddling in the state of Hawai'i.

The HCRA includes more than 70 canoe clubs and 10,000 paddlers from around the state.

"We as a sport would not be where we are today without Michael Tongg," said Hannie Anderson, president of the O'ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association. "He was the president at a time when the HCRA came so far ahead."

Tongg was also a director of the Moloka'i Hoe in recent years, and worked with the voyaging canoe Hokule'a. Away from paddling, he is best known as an attorney in family court cases.

"The guy is one in a million," Nappy Napoleon said. "He could surf, paddle, dive, anything in the water."

The April 22 event will feature various races for six-person canoes.

The highlight will be a distance race from Duke Kahanamoku Beach to "Tongg's" — a surf spot near Diamond Head named after his family — and back.

There will also be sprint races and "fun" races off Duke Kahanamoku Beach.

Entry fee is $125 per crew, and all proceeds will be donated to the Tongg family.

For entry information, send an e-mail to anona@hawaii.edu.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.