A LOOK INSIDE THE HAWAI‘I ART SCENE TO WHET YOUR PALETTE
Photo: Hilton Dawe

Dave Homcy

Once upon a time, surf movies meant something. But by the late ’90s, the movies had turned to videos and then eventually turned to flicks, leaving surfers with a formulaic and segmented view of surf culture and more so, the world, as locales mattered little compared to the waves. Snap, cutback, tail slide, tube ride, air, floater; Repeat.

Moonlighting Surfer:  Taira Lei Aloha Barron
Born: Feb. 12, 1987
Home break: V-land
Job: Cocktail waitress and trail guide
By Alee Thompson


Every small town has a sweetheart. She’s the girl who everyone knows and loves and who represents the style of living that place is known for. For a town that’s known for surfing, beauty, and country living, Taira Lei Aloha Barron is the North Shore’s sweetheart. She rips, she works at a local restaurant and she’s a country girl at heart.

By Kevin Whitton

Jon Steele kneels down next to one of Chris Ward’s Pipe boards, one he’ll ride in the Pipe Masters. His rusty-colored full beard, trucker hat and square, black-frame glasses conceal his focused demeanor as he rips lengths of masking tape from the diminishing role and quickly applies it to the virgin white board. Once all the tape has been laid to his liking, he grabs a can of spray paint, gives it a quick shake, chucks the cap to the side and starts feathering the paint onto the board in flowing waves of color. Moments later the paint is dry and he removes the tape, grabs a Sharpie and outlines his design.

By Kevin Whitton

“Making art to me is like skating in a pool session. One guy drops in to stoke himself and the rest of the skaters are waiting to drop in. The next guy drops in to do the same. Everyone in the session is just trying to stoke themselves and everyone out. I make my art for the same reason.”

These are the words of Manny Pangilinan, a talented young artist who has recently embraced the Hawaiian Islands as his new home, melding his tropical environment with his calligraphic art and his passions for skateboarding and surfing.

Pangilinan moved to O‘ahu two years ago from Brooklyn, New York, after an epiphany drove him west—his Philippine blood was designed to be in a warm, Pacific habitat and not cold, New York winters. “Palm trees don’t grow in New York City for a reason, so I don’t belong there either,” he explains.