O’AHU – ‘Aloha is Dead’?

[This post is entirely italicized, and I don't know why - Kikila]

The Bonzai Pipeline

What luck: Finding out you’ve booked a ticket to O’ahu at the end of December, all the way back in early September, at the tail end of the 2013 Billabong Pipemasters? For a kook, new to surfing, this is some pretty good news. Think about it: After having only surfed for the first time a year ago, you get the chance to sit with 10,000 people and watch the absolute competition pros (two of whom you can actually identify and name) ride one of the best barrel waves in the world (a break you’ve never really heard of).


What dumb luck: Arriving in Honolulu, at 9pm, the day the competition ended? Oh well, that’s karma!


Back to reality. When I booked the ticket to Hawai’i as an 8-day stop-over between Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada I figured it would be a great place to do a little surfing, and to see what O’ahu is all about. I mean think about it: This is the literal and cultural birthplace of surfing, and is so removed from the North American continent that my expectations were high for some cultural interaction, and some decent, and different, experiences. Hawai’i, in the western landscape (and here I don’t mean a style of painting, I mean more the definition given in Brian Black’s Petrolia: Culture + Environment = landscape) is probably one of green, towering volcanic mountains, epic waves, and magical beaches where time doesn’t matter, and you can leave your watch at home. For a lot of people it also means something more: being able to remove themselves from the realities of their day-to-day existence and experience an almost LOST-style magical island dissociated from the hustle and bustle of the rest of their typical existence.

Oahu Power Station (John Fisher, gohawaii.about.com)

This landscape – one, I must admit, I held on to dearly – was shattered almost the moment I arrived. O’ahu boasts, perhaps, the worst recycling infrastructures I have ever seen. For the most part, the entire island is trash only, with a few random spots that offer recycling curb-side pick-up, and then, many public beaches and parks (outside of Waikiki, the epicentre of tourism) do not offer a recycling option. Moreover, the majority of the electricity pretty much all Hawai’ians rely on is supplied by coal/oil.


There is little I can say about Honolulu/Waikiki that entices. It is a wonderful international vacation destination built in the 1960’s (which gives it a nostalgic, time-tested feel) and populated by tourists (like myself) who have come in search of the elusive ‘Aloha.’ To see the marketing of Indigenous cultural values is – sadly – nothing new to me, and normally I can understand experiencing it as an extension of travel. Honolulu, unfortunately, has taken the notion (especially when one actually listens to what ‘Aloha’ meant in Hawai’ian culture) and, when coupled with the coal power and lack of recycling, not to mention the road-agro and other colonial North American impatiences that have found a way out here, the hypocrisy and blatant ‘cultural trope for sale’ marketing is hard to deal with.


Then, in the midst of all of this mediocre luck (missing Pipe and being stuck in Waikiki), I found solace.

The 'Bonzai Bishop' headed to Church

Having met through http://couchsurfing.org, I headed to the ‘Fabled North Shore’ to stay with Mike (known locally as the ‘Bonzai Bishop’), a (white) Hawai’ian happily installed just outside of Sunset. Despite Mike having only been back on O’ahu for 3 years, his knowledge of the area is insane. Add to that his background in psychology and philosophy, his experiences being one of the leading members of the O’ahu (rock) climbing community in their access battles with the state, his non-stop good nature and willingness and patience to help others, and his culturally-conscious environmentalism, made him the best possible human being for me to run into on my mission to spread the Soul Surfer’s message.


F

Trash in the parking lot near Hali'ewa

or four days we toured around the ‘Seven-Mile Miracle,’ and Bonzai Bishop did not disappoint in guruing me through the often terrifying coral-covered breaks where the waves easily out-classed anything I’d attempted in Aotearoa (with the exception of Kaikoura, which was less scary having no reef just a metre under the water). All the while, as Mike showed me the various breaks and locations around Hali’ewa (accompanied at times by other couchsurfers, Alex (Aleksandr Udalov) – a Russian psychologist who is basically circumnavigating the world, nearly entirely on foot and by hitchhiking who is currently trying to define happiness; search for his videos on youtube – and Ria – a Swiss traveller also touring around the world – and Mike’s roommates Carl and Stu – who are easily Mike’s equals in cool vibes, surfing and environmental dedication, living that soul-surfing-dirtbag lifestyle) we talked about the condition of Hawai’i – environmentally and culturally – and the (often failed) potential the island state, so removed from the mainland, could embody.


Having come from Aotearoa – another Pacific island colonized by Europeans that is now making a conscious effort to be as green and culturally-minded as outwardly possible – to Hawai’i, my expectations were that the small state would be moving in a similar direction: Towards a green image (one of NZ’s exception in this is John Key selling out oil off the coast) and a culturally inclusive population (in regards to Māori/Pākehā relations). What I saw, and the way Bonzai Bishop explained it to me, the reality is wholly different.


Although only reflective of a minority, there are surfers along the North Shore who are highly aggressive

More trash

, and are openly hostile when it comes to tourists. I can understand this in on a few levels. Unfortunately, the ways this manifests is at times destructive and sad, and again ignore the entire concept of Aloha. Glass bottles, sometimes, are broken along the beach or in the parks in hopes of deterring non-locals from visiting certain breaks, leaving added trash to the already mounting piles that decorate the North Shore’s breaks. From a surfing standpoint, line-ups aren’t always friendly, and even in some of the kook breaks (where beginners not used to the challenge of large reef breaks) go to nurse their wounds or cut their teeth, instructors tend to encourage their young students to drop in on any wave they can get. As well, the instructors give other surfers as much static as they can, more than hinting that they own the wave.

Butts near the beach (bad photo!)

Here I’d like to take a moment to thank Terry, the paddle-boarding local who took it upon himself to defend both the Aloha vibe (of which he is a firm believer, and who is saddened by its startling decline), and the right of ways along the breaks. If you’re in the area, Terry (who I chatted with at length in the Turtle Bay parking lot and is just such an awesome dude) plays shows Saturday evenings from 5pm-9:30pm at Surfer [the bar] at Turtle Bay. Rather than teaching groms about recycling, being a part of nature, and being members of a community, he said, what’s taught is glory-hogging and ego-mania.


For a pale-chested Soul Surfer ambassador, wandering around some of the most challenging breaks in the world, it’s understandably hard to get people chatting about the environment, culture, and the potential for social justice that surf-travel allows. But fear not! All is not bad. Among the Bonzai Bishop and his mates I met a growing network of people who have had enough of the abuse, and the idea that the state of Hawai’i has completely dropped the ball in environmental and cultural (specifically in regards to Indigenous Hawai’ian culture) sustainability. From the ‘Beet Box,’ an organic store in Hali’ewa, to the Farmer’s Market near Waimea Bay (I went on Wednesday, and I think it goes on twice a week in the Waimea Botanical Gardens parking), there’s a great deal of grassroots movements picking up steam, and doing their best to promote sustainable living – and surfing – along the North Shore. I think, with a little doing, it might be possible to add the Soul Surfer Foundation’s voice to this movement, and I think it is in this area I might put more energies in the near future.


If you’re interested in learning a little bit more about what’s going down in Hawai’i, and movements

Bonzai Bishop, Carl, and Ria, checking the swell

designed to undo/stem the damage done by years of tourist-promotion and nearly no encouragement of sustainability of any kind, check out the Shaka Movement (http://www.shakamovement.org/), or the Kōkua Hawai’i Foundation (http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/  which, by the way, was founded by Jack Johnson, who lives and cares on the North Shore), let alone the Surfrider Foundation and its Hawai’ian chapters (http://surfrider.org/).

So, despite the title of this post (I’d say ‘which is my last,’ though I might – as it turns out – be lying) being a quote from Carl (‘Aloha is dead’), I think that there’s still some small sparks in the fire that can be stoked into flames. As Bonzai Bishop, Carl, Stu, and I discussed: It’s going to be a long, uphill battle, that will need to include so many different groups, peoples, and movements, there might be a glimmer of hope.
  

The lineup at Pipeline

To finally end this epic post, I’ll stick with the ‘hope’ vibe: Even though I missed the Pipemasters (by mere hours), on my third day on the North Shore, the ocean looked more like a lake, and despite every break being nearly empty, the ‘Seven-Mile Miracle’ was charged with a crazy frenetic energy. A massive swell was coming in that night, fuelled by full-moon tide, it promised to go off in a really spectacular way. After spending Friday morning surfing just outside of Hali’ewa, Carl and Bonzai Bishop took Ria and me out to Pipeline where I saw the biggest waves of my life. And, despite most of the Aussie and other international competitors having gone to their home breaks for the holidays, we watched Kelly Slater and other pro’s charging hard, and grabbing some of the sickest barrels the world has to offer.


Mahalo for reading, and for being interested in the whole Soul Surfer, and Ride Aware projects. Stay in touch on facebook (check out both groups), and try and do your part while touring around, surfing, and giving back more than you take out. I go now into the horrible snow!

Bonzai Bishop & Kikila

Ride With Care!

Aloha!

Kikila 

As a brief footnote: Mike, the Bonzai Bishop, is currently undergoing his own spiritual and physical quest (to be able to surf pipeline next winter, with only 2 years of surfing under his boardshorts). Having battled drug and substance addiction, and is now living a sober, healthy life, that came about through his love for surfing. He is working on a novel, and hopes to promote his experiential writing through a blog. As soon as it is up and running, I’ll probably promote it here, and through other channels. I’d say take a look at it when it’s up. He’s a really awesome dude, with a really awesome story, and I think his message is one that all of us can appreciate.


Charge hard, Mike!