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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.