Honolulu Marathon

On December 13,2009 the Honolulu Marathon took place. Michael Zhang the owner of Blue Hawaii Surf dedicated his participation in this year's marathon to Kenny Brimer. Michael only runs once a week to prep for the marathon and pretty much the rest is pretty much whatever happens...happens. Running 26 miles normally requires a year long commitment and planning to get your body ready for an run a race of this magnitude. Michael told me that he would think about the fight that Kenny is going through with leukemia and this would keep him plenty motivated to finish the race no matter what. He predicted he'd finish in 4 and half hours and even though he cramped at the 10 mile marker and had to walk for awhile, he some how managed to finish at his targeted time he set for himself. Aside from this run Michael sent our mass emails to all his friends and business networks to make a monetary contribution to Kenny Bimer on Michael's behalf for participating in the Honolulu Marathon. Although Kenny and Michael don't know each other very well and come from different worlds it's nice to see the owner of our company who neither skates or surfs make a commitment to helping out a fellow skateboarder.

Michael Zhang on yards away from the finish line of this years Honolulu Marathon.
Michael Zhang and Kenny Brimer "Active Supporters of Skateboarding in Hawaii"

Behind the scenes @ "Boardjunkies" Exhibit

It's been a couple of weeks since we held the opening for the "Boardjunkies" exhibit. It's been even longer since the idea first came about. Mike Kays and I talked about the idea of showcasing his collection in December of 08. Nothing ever came about nor did we really talk about it until this October when Mike approached me about his annual Turkey Shootout Bowl Contest at the Hickam Hanger. I had him come check out the opening we did for "Fly This" Jeannie Chesser's artshow. Little did I know that Jeannie was down with all the local skateboarders and her show had brought about alot of the O.G.'s of skateboarding here in Hawaii. Mike liked the feel of the show and from there it was on! Because we were coming into the Thanksgiving holiday as well as Mike's bowl contest at Hickam we were forced to hold off until 3 days before the actual event on how we were going to plan this thing out. In my experience the most fun and memorable events come about on a whim with hardly any planning and most of the time very last minute. Well this was the case for "Boardjunkies" and this exhibit was both fun and memorable for all who attended and for that I am stoked!
There's alot of prep work and behind the scenes things that go on when preparing for a show or any of event. Because I'm such a procrastinator it puts alot of pressure on both myself and the friends who are helping to set up the show. I am very fortunate to have friends like Mark Kawakami amongst the many who are always down to help out on the drop of a dime. Without friends like Mark and everyone else who contributed these events wouldn't be possible. Mahalos to all of you who have contributed over the past year and half with all of our events at the Blue Hawaii Gallery / Eighty Four Skate Co. Here are some photos from behind the scenes as well as the details that mostly go over looked but are every bit as important as the show itself. Enjoy!

Naz Kawakami
Mike Kays
Mark Kawakami

Deck the Halls @ Manifest 12/11/09

Last Friday evening after the Redbull Skate Shop Battle Kavet the Catylist held a deck artshow at Manifest. The event was put on to help raise funds for Kenny Brimer who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Artist such as Jef Hartsel, Eukarest, Katch, Angry Woebots, Dyson Ramones, Matt Tapia, Jeremy Strength, Jason Menor, Neukon, Evil Genius, Kenny Brimer, and the list goes on and on contributed to the cause.

Kenny Brimer
Jef Hartsel
Eukarest
Katch
Jason Menor
I was told that this board went for $800. Don't know the artist but this piece stood out amongst the rest.

Red Bull Skate Shop Battle 12/11/09

On Friday December 11, 2009 Redbull along with Fitted Hawaii and APB held a shop challenge at A'ala Skate Park. Rene from Fitted designed a custom rainbow rail had it built and bolted down over the nipple at A'ala Skatepark. The winner of the best trick over this death rail won a skydiving adventure with the Red Bull team. I didn't get to see the whole contest but here are some pics of the attempts that were made. Most of them bails but nonetheless courageous. Most notable landed tricks were Lil' Daniel's smith grind and Silent John's noseblunt which eventually won the contest. Congrats to Silent John!
Chris Kays
Sunshine
Silent John

Joyrides Art Company

Check out Joyrides Art Company's website by Mark Kawakami. It's a sick site featuring his photography and art. He mostly covers chops and hotrods but also features some surf, skate, etc. There's a feature on Kyle Yanagimoto on their you guys will enjoy. Shoots!

Analog Skate Team @ A'ala Park

Hawaii's own Mark Oblow (Analog/Gravis skate team manager) was back in town with Arto Saari, Dylan Reider, and Stefan Janowski to host a BBQ/demo @ A'ala Park for the local skateboarders. This demo however wasn't your typical demo with a bunch of groms on the sidelines waiting for a handout. Oblows roots in skateboarding run deep here in Hawaii and can be traced back to glory days of the 80's skateboard/punk rock scene. So as you would imagine alot of the elder statesmen of skateboarding showed up in full support of Oblow as well as to trade off stories and alot of catching up. Skateboarders like Jef Hartsel, Kyle Yanagimoto, Rene Mathyson, Rob Carlyon, Vince Kraus, and the list goes on showed up to partake in the festivities. The HPD was there as well in full force ready to pounce at the first sight of any adult beverages being consumed. It was ok for the drug dealers to do their deal as well as the crackheads to do what they do, but the focus for the evening was all on the skateboarders. Go figure! Anyways a goodtime was had by all. Mahalos to Nos and Oblow for the teri burgers as well as to Chad from APB for manning the grill and serving em up!

Shawny Boy!

Sean Santiago was just showin me some pictures of his recent hiking trip in which he hiked up to about 11,000 feet. The last 1000 feet he hiked by himself because no one else wanted to keep going. He snapped off a couple of self portraits at the top. Check out the captain morgan pose with the mililani lifeguard shirt!