It’s surprising how many people of “Polynesian” descent have settled in Washington state and stayed here.A little while ago I was looking at a recent breakdown of the ethinc backgrounds of residents here and the figures were something like 200,000 people were from the “South Pacific area”(Hawaii,Tonga,Samoa,Tahiti,Maori,etc).I think a lot of that has to do with the mildness of the Puget Sound’s climate.It really doesn’t get extreme here at either end of the weather spectrum…plus it’s not too far away from the islands to just hop on a plane and fly home to see family.
My past was the opposite.My mother(and I are Haole) moved to Hawaii in 1965,she remarried a pure Hawaiian resident(VP Teamsters & local 681,Harry Kuhia Jr…my family was heavy into the unions,I wasn’t)…and I had a chance to live there and go to college right after high school…however I enrolled in August with a start in September…which gave me a curriculum of only leftover terrible classes that either made no sense(2nd year classes in computer sciences…old binary stuff),were well under what I knew in that field(advanced mathmatics,stuck in old algebra),and other things I wasn’t interested in to fill the void of the sememster.I didn’t last long out of boredom for what I was taking…and having just arrived in Hawaii.
I do recall my first encounter with big waves was skipping out of classes one afternoon/evening with a local friend in December of 1969 and heading up to the north shore to watch and view the damage of the big storm of that year…with myself and about 50 other people getting decked by a rogue one of the large waves that evening at Waimea that laid everybody out in the parking lot…as the wave washed through clear to the highway.A marine died in the wash of that wave(I think the only death of the storm); a group of servicemen were farther down beyond the grass on the sandy beach and letting the waves wash them up to the grass.Unfortunately he didn’t get out of the wave in time to avoid the backwash.I don’t think they ever found him again.Getting off the north shore was interesting,avoiding vehicles that had been pushed into others on the dry side of the highway,debris all over the roads.That was the same storm that I think Greg Noll rode the 25’ one the next day at Makaha.
After bailing out of college,I spent the next year or so in Hawaii working at local businesses.but not really happy with the jobs I was getting, so moved to Los Angeles for over a year around 1971.I settled into doing some technical drafting for Boeing catalogs but hated the Los Angeles social scene…and headed back to Hawaii.I was still doing odd jobs… parking attendant,Mauna Luan maintenance,The Cab and Alpha Taxi and Tours,some part-time construction work,and casual surfing,hiking,partying.I got along great with the locals,never had any problems.
At the time I was a long haired hippy,a spitting image of Jerry Santos(Olomana…when he still had hair),hung out quite a bit with the Records Hawaii crowd,liked slack key and local music(still do).I remember one time at a bar watching the Sandwich Island Band(Pahinuis) where Blah or Cyril wanted me to “Come up on stage and perform a song with them”.I had a hard time convincing them that NO,I wasn’t Jerry and couldn’t sing or play guitar worth a damn.LOL!I still think they didn’t believe I wasn’t him.I would get a lot of people calling his name and waving while driving down the road.My name ryhmes with his…so I would just smile and wave back…they were either his friends or mine.
My surfing…was casual…usually early mornings watching the sunrises off Waikiki from Publics(I’m goofy-foot) off Kapiolani Park…or running out to Makapuu once or twice a week.I didn’t really getting into any heavy north shore surfing.I did have a girlfriend at one time that had an old Dewey Weber Mini-Feather I borrowed from time to time to play with around Waikiki breaks…a 7’ mini longboard.That board was fun on crappy surf…I messed with shortened fins on an old 8’ Surfboards Hawaii country gun I had earliest…when Ben Aipa started his Glass Slippers and side slipping down waves became a big thing.I usually surfed by myself or with one Uof H friend that ended up going to teach in Japan.When I was living back here in Washington…I had brought my Dennis Pang board with me…but only used it behind boats on lakes.My friend stopped here on his way to Japan…so I packed up that board and he took it with him,an end to any of my surfing.When he left Japan,he gave it to a teaching friend that remained there…so that one is probably still in Japan.My Randy Rarick tri-fin was sold in Hawaii…all orange with a repaired 4-5" gash in the bottom from a coral head that got the board,just before it gashed my back on that wave…nice little tubers at low tide…surfing in and out of the exposed coral heads.I guess I deserved that one.
After 10 years or so,I still had $150 in my pocket and nothing to show for all that time in Hawaii…so I left…came back up here and got back into construction steady…and later a general contractor in remodeling houses,some commercial work…built my two houses I own in my spare time…and getting ready to retire at the end of this year.I did spend some winters weekend skiing when I returned but the wet cement snow here was hard on the knees.My brother has the old family lake place and a couple Hobie cats(16’,17’)…so I sailed those quite bit.I also spent years hiking in this area,say 20-30 miles a month, during spring through fall until my knees curtailed 90% of that the last couple years.Here you can even hike in the wintertime,either the lowland mountains or along the northern coastal beaches…15-20 miles stretches of isolation to oneself if you go then,temperatures in the 50s…
As far as Hawaii and returning there…I haven’t been back since I left in 1979…although the wife goes back to Maile every year to sit around with family and eat(Chinese-Hawaiian style…always eat,eat,eat!) and visit her family…never even walking across the street to the beach at Maile or elsewhere.I watched probably 70% of Waikiki turning into hi-rises in the 9-10 years I was there back in 69-79…and would rather remember it as it “was”.I don’t think I’d like all the changes that have been made since then,so I haven’t returned.I’ve thought about building or buying maybe on the Big Island. Houses there seem to be about 1/2 price or less than here…maybe something to think about after retirement.I don’t think I could stand Oahu again,due to the high cost of living there and the crowds.
Okay…I’m done with my history…This thread does bring back memories…Time in Hawaii is something one doesn’t forget…
