By Chelsea Johns
There is no disputing that the Valley Isle is producing some of the
hottest young talent around. While rippers like Dusty Payne, Ola
Eleogram, Hank Gaskell and Granger Larsen haven’t broken the WCT
barrier, they’re knocking hard on that door. Young Mauians have been
turning heads at amateur events and making their presence felt on the
WQS. They’re finding their way into your latest surf vid and infusing
the pages of surf mags across the globe. Nine Maui hotshots were
featured in Surfer Magazine’s “Hot 100” surfers of 2008. When you
consider the size of the entire international surfing community, that’s
a pretty impressive figure.
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Sun Up to Sun Down
Maui surfers power life with solar
By Kevin Whitton
Matias Besasso moved to Maui to follow a dream. He wanted to live and
surf in paradise. As an architectural student from Argentina, he
assimilated quickly into the Valley Isle community by taking a job as
an electrical contractor. He was making a good living for himself,
surfing often, but a disconnect was growing between his line of work
and his own environmentally conscious principals. “I was designing
electrical for tract homes that were not designed for Hawai‘i,” Besasso
says. “It was a complete waste, but luckily I have found an avenue to
put to work what I believe in.”
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Art by Clark Takashima
By Manny Pangilinan
When you look at one of Clark
Takashima's paintings, its as if you can hear the crack of the lip as it
crashes down, see the reef through the crystal clear water like you were
actually paddling and feel the anticipation of the surfer as he tries to remain
calm in the barrel. Blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, you
can stare into perfect waves and imagine the line you would take, where you’d
pull under the lip and come out cranking a huge carve. Clark Takashima's
paintings deliver the anticipation and stoke of surfing, and make you want to
get into the water.
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Poetry in Motion Word Maestro Kealoha
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 By Yhazi Graham
Slam Poetry is a verbal expression that splices unique words into
varying tonal patterns, describing feelings, memories, stories,
moralities and more. O‘ahu has the largest registered slam poetry
competition in the world, where anyone is welcome to listen or share a
poem. The catalyst for this event is a humble, intelligent man named
Kealoha. He is the founder of Hawai‘i Slam, Youth Speaks Hawai‘i, and
First Thursdays.
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Journey of a Waterwoman: the Valley Isle’s Tiare Lawrence
By Chelsea Johns
Name: Tiare Lawrence
Birth Date: July 1, 1982
Sponsors: Hinano, C4 Waterman, Honey Girl Swimwear, DaKine and Xcel Wetsuits Hometown: Lahaina, Maui
Home Break: Lahaina Harbor
While we often hail individuals for their ability to excel in one
arena, a waterwoman like Tiare Lawrence deserves credit for her skills
in stand up paddle surfing, shortboarding, bodyboarding, longboarding,
tow-in surfing, and in one-man and six-man canoes. A typical day for
Tiare always includes a paddle or a surf, but most likely both. Born to
Haunani Teruya and the late John Lawrence, and raised along the
west-Maui mountains, Tiare has grown up near the ocean, but didn’t get
into surfing until age eleven when she jumped in Lahaina Harbor. Her
first craft was a bodyboard and she learned by watching her cousins and
the other “harbor rats.” “Yup, I was a sponger, and I loved it!” she
admits.
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 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.
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Destination: Southern Nepal
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 Up close and too personal with Nepalese wildlife
By Beau Flemister
It’s all fun and games until the bushes fifty feet in front of you
explode and a charging rhino bursts into view, the rhythmic sound of
galloping mixed with a twisted snorting getting louder and louder.
That’s when I stopped fiddling with the video camera and start
negotiating up the nearest tree, the zenith of my own rhino tracking
expedition.
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By Kevin Whitton & Chelsea Johns
Sometimes it seems like West Maui and its surf hot shots get all the
hype. For instance, they’ve got the freighting, hollow tubes at Honolua
Bay, two reality TV series: Maui Fever and Living Lahaina, they host
the infamous Front Street Halloween and harbor all the tourist traps.
Neither better nor worse, the west side is quite a divergence from its
east Maui counterpart.
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Bigger Is Better
Mix skateboarding mini-ramp demos, a stand up paddle surfing expo, the
emerging boardsports environmental movement, then stir in classic cars,
shiny hogs, Hooter girls and a Miss Tropicana contest and you’ve got
eye candy sweeter than butterscotch. Actually, you just made the second
annual Big Boys 4 Big Boys Expo that went off during the weekend of
March 28-30, at the Neal Blaisdale Center Exhibition Hall.
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Renaissance Man
By Chelsea Johns
Name: Ian Walsh
Age: 24
Hometown: Ku‘au
Homebreak: Ho‘okipa
Sponsors: O’Neill, Red Bull, Boost Mobile, DAKINE, Hi-tech, Gravis, go211.com, …Lost, HGA, Vertra
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Riding the Wave of Preservation at Honolua Bay
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By Ian ʻAkahi Masterson
Honolua Roots
Honolua Bay is located near the northernmost point of West Maui, Lipoa,
just past Mokulēʻia Beach. The bay has several surfing peaks along the
northern point and north to northwest swells refract into bay creating
several excellent surfing peaks from Subs, out by Lipoa Point, to
Coconuts, through to the Cave, and down the reef to the Keiki Bowl. It
is an excellent example of a surfing site that the Hawaiians
acknowledged as a type of wave that was enjoyable to surf: heʻe
puʻewai, is to surf towards the mouth of the stream. The bay is also
associated with many famous Hawaiian people. This ʻaina is sacred and
these facts entitle Honolua to be a designated cultural site through
the State Historic Preservation Division—though no one has requested
this designation.
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 Split Peak
Davey Brand has a much different upbringing than most of the
local talent shredding the Pipe to Pups lineup. The 15-year-old goofyfoot
spends part of the year in chilly Cape Town, South Africa and the rest of the
year beachfront at Pupukea. Bouncing back and forth between two obverse surf
towns has likely strengthened his dynamic surfing and competitive prowess. The
young South African cites moving to the North Shore as the highlight in his
surfing career. “It pushed my surfing to the next level. There is so much
competition over here, it's amazing!”
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