Makaha is a Hawaiian beach where white people and other outsiders venture at a risk of their safety. There are many stories of visiting surfers being chased from the water here, a few with broken noses, after breaking some unwritten rule. I wanted to avoid the same fate.
I saw what appeared to be an unclaimed wave. But just as I approached, a stone-faced teenager got on the same wave. He put his hand on my shoulder and pushed me off the wave. I gave up and paddled in.
Over several weeks in Makaha I learned that what looked like mafia behavior was more complicated. “We got nice people here, but if you treat them bad, they’ll treat you bad,” said a man sitting on the beach. On the subject of Makaha and its customs, there is no higher authority that Richard “Buffalo” Keaulana. He is the most prominent of Makaha’s famous “uncles” --- the mostly Hawaiian elders who serve as guardians of the community --- and is revered throughout the islands as the perfect “waterman”. In 1977 he started a surfing contest that has a party atmosphere and multiple events. “Uncle Buff” is also pragmatic in the running of his contest. Tourists often returned to their rental cars to find windows smashed and wallets missing. So he identified the locals responsible for the break-ins --- “all the thieves and make-trouble guys” --- and hired them as security guards. The thefts mostly stopped.
I went to meet one of the “make-trouble guys”, a surfing prodigy with a troubled past named Sheldon Paishon. I turned in to a neighborhood of ramshackle houses, one of which had a bed-sheet hanging in the front door. Paishon looked through the opening and joined me in my car. We drove to the beach where there were big, powerful waves. Paishon didn’t hesitate before joining the dozen surfers already in the water, and within moments he was dominating the field. After half an hour, he snapped his board in half and swam back to the beach, holding a piece of it in one hand.
The uncles notices Paishon’s talent when he was a child. They supported him with surfboards, food, clothing and advice. By the time Paishon was in his early teens, he was a regular on a competitive junior surfing circuit. But he struggled in school and was mocked by his classmates for his mildewed clothes before dropping out in the ninth grade. Paishon admits he smoked marijuana --- sometimes paying for the drug by selling one of the surfboards he had been given. His supporters began to lose patience. “I slapped his head,” one of the uncles told me. The biggest setback came when his reputation was badly damaged and potential sponsors turned away after Paishon was accused of stealing money. Later, he stopped using drugs, got a job cleaning cars and planned to use his salary to finance his dream of being a pro surfer.
After my initial surfing misadventure at Makaha, I went to see a member of one of Makaha’s most prominent families. I asked him for advice on avoiding another bad experience in the water and he replied, “When someone new comes, we expect them to introduce themselves and say hi, at least.” I went back to the beach and got a chance to put his advice into practice. After I struck up a conversation with a stocky Hawaiian, we saw a big wave coming. I looked at him. Mine? His nod was subtle to the point of telepathy.