Kapolei Archives - littlebigfootblog.com

make someone smile

17JUL25

like Roy Sakuma

a poem daily
on the run
like the ukulele
it's lots of fun

have to think quick
like a puma
learn how to pick
like Roy Sakuma

might be soon 
do we know
ukulele tunes
in his studio

he has four
just like the strings
let your fun soar
on the uke's wings 

bigfoot is not around
close enough to hear it
but he joins the sound
with his spirit

it is fun there
staying calm
strumming under
the swaying palms

We have mentioned the vibe quite a bit in this blog. Two of my favorite topics are the ukulele and bigfoot. It seems all you have to do is just mention either one and people just naturally smile. And honestly the ukulele is probably even lower key than bigfoot. No pun intended. Most people don’t see the uke as a convenient platform to launch into a debate. Which is not always the case with the big guy.

I thought that the best way to introduce the uke into the blog would be thru this man. I have actually been to his studio in Aiea several times. We once took a six year old there and enrolled him in lessons. I will always remember how pumped up he was after his first lesson. The only thing more impressive than his ambition and dedication at that moment in time was how fast it dried up or evaporated in the following days. In the following years I would tag along on Monday nights on the drive from Kapolei to Aiea during my visits to Oahu. He would be in the back seat playing the uke for the first time since the previous week’s lesson. And even then he would be more focused on negotiating what he considered to be a more favorable place to dine on the trip home than trying to learn the song that he had supposed to have been practicing all week. But I will have to admit it is an entertaining memory.

I remember sitting in the waiting room or office and listening to the kids playing uke in the classrooms behind closed doors with their teachers. The stories that the young moms seemed to tell the most usually revolved around them holding their breath while they watched their six or seven year old carry or swing his or her brand new expensive Hawaiian koa ukulele around like it was one on their other plastic toys. As you will see in the video Roy Sakuma hosted the Annual Ukulele Festival for years.

As we chase and try to ride the right vibe in this blog we salute and recognize Roy Sakuma. He is truly an emissary of the ukulele, joy, fun and happiness. Enjoy the video. Think about picking up a uke. You can pick up one very inexpensively on eBay. A lot of people really like the Makala Dolphin. They are usually around or below $50 on eBay. And mine usually sound as good or better than more expensive solid wood ukuleles. The Dolphin has a plastic back and sides and laminated wood top. This also allows them to come in a whole assortment of colors. In the very near future you will begin to see a ukulele in the beginning of the flyover videos on the blog.

It is a neat video and story in more ways than one. I hope that it inspires you and makes you smile.

Here is the link for the video.(6:27)

Hawaii

Eddie Would Go

listeners of the wind

we plow in the dark
hands on the handle
his hands on the bark
bigfoot lights the candle

our ignorance broken
we see a glimmer 
we hear it mind spoken
a voice from a shimmer

our inner child is loosed
the know it all is gone
as we are introduced 
n2 the world of the unknown

we have become a seer
a listener of the wind
and now we are freer
than we have ever been

we continue to plow
but are no longer slaves
now let's talk about the Aikaus
who rode the big waves

I had not planned on doing another post on Hawaii so soon but this poem and idea woke me up about 0415 this morning. So I guess we will try to make it to the beach on this wave. I just saw on the internet yesterday where Clyde Aikau had passed away about a month ago. I had always planned on doing a post on Eddie Would Go.

Around 2001 I think we were leaving the Safeway on Kam Highway in Kapolei and I kept on seeing these bumper stickers that said Eddie Would Go. So I immediately found out that they were for Eddie Aikau who had been a legendary lifeguard and big wave surfer at Waimea Bay.

In 1968 Eddie was the first lifeguard hired by the City & County of Honolulu for the North Shore. He had left school at 16 and had been working at the Dole pineapple cannery. No one was lost while he worked as a lifeguard at Waimea. In 1978 he volunteered to be a crew member on the Hokule’a. That is a double hulled voyaging canoe used by the Polynesian Voyaging Society to retrace the routes and methods of the ancient Hawaiians and Polynesians.

The Hokule’a left Hawaii on March 16, 1978. After developing a leak the vessel capsized about 12 miles south of Moloka’i. Eddie volunteered to take his surfboard and swim to Lana’i to get help. Actually he insisted against the captain’s reservations to leave the vessel and go for help. If you read about or watch many of the videos about this tragedy there is a lot of discussion about Eddie convincing the captain to let him go. (Eddie Would Go). Eddie was last seen by the members of the crew taking off his life jacket so he could paddle on his surfboard better. The crew was later rescued by the Coast Guard. According to Wikipedia the search for Eddie’s body was the largest in Hawaiian history.

That is a very brief account of the whole thing. There are many articles and videos on the internet that can catch you up to speed. He has been memorialized with one of the most famous surfing competitions in the world. Quicksilver sponsored “The Eddie” up until 2016. The first one was in 1985. It was held at Sunset Beach. In 1987 the event moved to Waimea Bay and Clyde Aikau won the contest. Hollywood could not make up a better story than Eddie’s little brother winning it the first year at Waimea.

The contest itself has several restrictions. It can only proceed if the waves are a minimum height of 30 feet. I have heard this explained several different ways. And honestly I still don’t have clear understanding of it. Wikipedia says that it has to be a minimum of a 20 feet open-ocean swell that translates to a wave face height of 30 feet. Let’s just say the waves have be too big for most mortals to consider paddling their boards into. And they do have to swim out into the waves with their boards. Jet skis are not allowed to tow surfers out.

Supposedly the phrase “Eddie would Go” was coined by surfer Mark Foo when they were deciding whether or not to proceed with the contest because of the dangerously high waves. Quicksilver has entire surf stores named Eddie Would Go. Or they did. They stopped sponsoring the contest in 2016 and the Aikau family sought out local sponsors to sponsor the event when the waves were high enough. The contest allows 28 surfers to participate.

Hawaii is a place of traffic problems. And the Kam Highway on the North Shore is a 2 lane highway. You can google some of the traffic and parking jams when there is a big surf contest on the north shore. There are even traffic and parking jams when the waves are high and people just want to drive out and park along the highway to watch them.

I am including the links to 3 short videos on the Aikaus. The first one is a short segment of an ESPN film on Eddie. The second one is of Clyde riding his last time at The Eddie. The third one is of Clyde leading a group of surfers out at Waimea before the contest to do the circle ceremony. The news station is using the footage to announce his death. It is almost achingly and hauntingly beautiful. In that third film when he raises his arm and finger in the sky from 1:18 to 1:22 you can see the white bell tower of St. Peter and Paul Church behind him. If you are ever on the North Shore you can use that landmark from almost any where up and down the coast to know where Waimea is.

If you only have time to watch one of the 3 clips watch the last one. Because honestly that is the VIBE that we should all try to be in.

SMILE

ALOHA

Link for Eddie ESPN video.(4:57)

Link for Clyde at The Eddie video.(2:29)

Link for Clyde leading the Circle Ceremony video.(2:22)