FULL CIRCLE



If I had to choose one person that has been the most influential in my life, it would be Kanoa Dahlin. When I was growing up, he ran the after school program at the Hale‘iwa Surf Center on his off time from professional surfing. 20 kids would be there, all frothing to do some activity that Kanoa had in mind. It could have been anything from surfing, paintball, mountain biking, volleyball, Monopoly—the list goes on forever. Through all the fun, he taught us about family values, respect, and how to be a good people. Everyday was enjoyable and unpredictable. I just couldn’t wait to get back to the Surf Center. I can guarantee that anyone who was there in those days would agree—it was the best.

These days Kanoa can still be found in Hale‘iwa, but not in the Surf Center anymore. He’s around the beach on weekends with his family, Ku‘ulani and his son Araiti (who just turned four). The Surf Center has changed from those days. Now with many restrictions and rules most of the local kids don’t even use the equipment or the facilities. “I wish my son could enjoy the same experience that we had when we were younger, that’s why we all still hang out here as much as we can, to show them the family beach that Hale‘iwa is.”


Zen: What are your first memories of Hale‘iwa Ali‘i Beach?
Kanoa Dahlin: Yeah my Mom Dale used to work at the Surf Center and she was a professional surfer. My dad Earl was the man out at Hale‘iwa, making sure everything was going right in the surf. I was literally born and raised on this beach. I have photos of me surfing from times that I don’t even remember, so it was first nature. It wasn’t only surfing we learned at the beach either. It was about the ocean and how to use our natural resources to have fun. Times are different now, back then we wouldn’t have Nintendo DSs and other stuff like that to keep us busy.

So I guess it was natural for you to start working at the Surf Center?
Yeah, I just naturally started working over here. It was like a clubhouse when I was working. Parents would just drop their kids off after school and there was nothing to worry about. We would always have something to do even if the waves were shitty. I think it was just great timing. All the different people then were the right people, all the kids, me and all our parents. I don’t know if that could ever happen again, but I can at least try to share what we had with the generation now.

What caused everything to change?
When Baywatch came to Hale‘iwa everything changed, A lot of changes were made within the Surf Center, more rules and restrictions, and I'm not good with changes so I quit. From there all the locals started to shift away from the Surf Center and started to setup tents away from the Center itself, showing disapproval of the Surf Centers ways. I would love for it to go back to how it was but like I said times have changed, the best we can do is to let our kids have fun and run around the beach.

But even the beach is starting to change right?
Yeah, Hale‘iwa has been hosting the Triple Crown for the last 25+ years, these days the production has become huge and with it comes more people. It’s a good and bad for the locals. I know it helps the community a lot and brings a lot of money into the town, but nowadays the production is so big. They started just with only a judge’s tower, now there are scaffoldings on both sides and it keeps growing every year. It bothers me that they don’t respect our beach. They dig up so much sand and leave rocks sticking out. The Triple Crown is a multi-million dollar machine these days, the least they can do is to help the beach out. I know the Triple Crown does give back to the community but I just think they can do more. They don’t even have location managers. I work on T.V. and film productions now and we have location managers that take care of all that stuff. Maybe the Triple Crown needs one of those to hear what the locals have to say.


カノアダーリン
カノアはハレイワ出身の正真正銘のウォーターマン。ハレイワサーフセンターのアフタースクールプログラムを仕切っていた。サーフィンはもちろんいろんな遊び で子供たちの毎日を楽しくしていた。遊びだけじゃなく全員の兄貴みたいで皆にポジティブな影響を与えてくれた。今では自分の息子が自分みたいにハレイワの 海で育っている。