Tag Archives: Maui

Another bit of surf history: The Lahaina Invitational Surfboard Paddling Races, 1960

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Race bookletHere’s another bit of island history found at the bottom of a box of my dad’s assorted papers.

It’s the program for the First Annual Lahaina Invitational Surfboard Paddling Races, dated June 11, 1960. Sponsored by the Maui Surf Club, Puunene, Maui. Click on the front cover to browse through the program.

It’s in poor condition because the color from the red cover leached through the interior pages. So cover ink plus normal aging let you know that this is 50 years old.

There’s also a handwritten cover letter from the event’s general chairman, Teruo Uchimura, to my father, John M. Lind, founder of the Waikiki Surf Club.

Inside the program is a brief history of surfing on Maui, tracing its modern history to the Hookipa Surfriders Club formed in 1935. The club held monthly meetings at Hookipa Park, and the county built surfboard lockers to hold 50 boards. Surfboard paddling races were held in Kahului Harbor on Kamehameha Day in 1939, and again in 1959 when surfing began a new revival.

There are also great advertisements for Maui businesses, some of which are still serving the island 50 years later.

Here’s a nice photo from the program, captioned “Maui Surfers”.

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Three views of Maui

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Rain

We’re just getting back from a quick couple of days on Maui.

It wasn’t our usual Maui trip, where we check into the Maui Seaside on the shores of beautiful Kahului Harbor. This time, through a series of events, we stayed in the luxury Westin Kaaanapali Ocean Resort Villas courtesy of old friends from Vancouver who cashed out a whole bunch of frequent flyer miles.

It’s a different world over here on this side of the island. It’s like Waikiki spread out for miles across the whole coast. Everything screams tourism. When the illusion of the manicured and carefully manufactured mega-resort experience begins to seem more inviting than the surrounding ticky-tacky sprawl peddling snorkeling gear, whale watching tours, and tatoos ad infinitum, you know something’s out of whack.

But there’s no doubt about the island’s beauty. I love this image. We were starting the drive back after a tour that took us through such highlights as the Kihei Salvation Army Thrift Store (not many visitors there), Rainbow Attic Consignment Store, also in Kihei, then over to Costco and Savers in Kahului. Somehow while wandering around we ended up on a little winding road behind the airport just as the harsh afternoon light was softened by a veil of afternoon rain drifting down over the slopes and valleys of the West Maui Mountains, with the silhouette of the Puunene sugar mill on the left in the foreground.

Luckily, I had my little travel camera (a Canon S90) in my pocket. We pulled off the road and I was able to get the shot.

In any case, last night I quickly grabbed three photos to share. Click on this one to view the others. [Oops. Early viewers just saw a repeat of this photo. Now it should be fixed and get you to the others!]