Koa Smith
In the surf world, they don’t come anymore charismatic than Koa Smith. As the face of Hawai‘i’s current junior powerhouse, Koa’s also one of the most competitvely driven and savvy surfers around today. He’s got a host of national titles to his name and a passport with more stamps than we care to count, but Koa’s also a sharp-minded kid. Couple the aforementioned with his artistic flair and we really wanted Koa’s voice in the mag. And thankfully, he obliged.

Malia Manuel
If there’s another young woman as poised, graceful and talented as Kauai’s Malia Manuel, we’d be downright shocked to hear about her. When we first began tossing around names for our Guest Editor list, when Malia was mentioned, we all knew we’d made the right call.  A few emails and a phone call later, and the US Open Champ was locked in as one of our guest editors.

After our initial meeting, Malia had a few ideas that we knew were golden. Among those, she wanted to include a piece on Shane Valiere, a surfer with a gift in the water, but also in the classroom. To see how Malia dissects one of the most talented surfers not to don a jersey, turn to page 70.

Seth Moniz
As a fiery grom and a member of a Hawaiian surfing dynasty, Seth Moniz is the youngest member of our Guest Editor trifecta. When we first sat down with Seth to talk about what he wanted to see in this issue, he threw down a litany of ideas that had the edit staff scratching away on our notepads.

“We’ve just got to do something on my friend Finn…he’s the most classic guy ever,” said a bright-eyed Seth. Sounds good to us, here’s a camera and deadline, let’s shoot for a draft next week.

And with that, Seth was off, a young rising grom turned surf journo documenting the life of today’s youth. When he came back, word and photos in tow, he didn’t
disappoint. To see a glossy version
of Seth’s work, turn to page 39.