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megastir
Mega means big or large
stir because I like to mix it up
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Thursday, January 23, 2003 :::
"Keiki" means child or youngster in the language of the natives of Hawaii.
Hawaii, paradise in the pacific, especially when your from a land so cold you have to worry about keeping your beer warm so it does not freeze solid when your out on a x country ski tour.
"Howzit bruddah?" was a common greeting. Usually uttered by the fresh faced keiki who turned out to be my mentor in dealing with the madness in and around Honolulu. Sometimes after a particularly late night of carousing and a day off spent charging ocean conditions well beyond my means. The cheerful aloha of this young lad was not fairly reciprocated on my part.
My home country, a land so cold a car has to be plugged in at night to keep the engine oil from freezing solid. A land so cold that if you were able to get your vehicle moving the tires would be frozen into a shape that was not quite a circle anymore and you would bounce down the road on these oval globs of frozen rubber till the friction warmed them up enough that they returned to their intended round shape. When told of this my young friend would always affect a disbelieving face and say "shoots you haole's always talk story"
This little guy maybe all of seven years old, grew up among the high-rises in Waikiki. A place less like the tropical paradise you might think. Except when you left the concrete canyons between the hotels and ventured out to the beach. It was still possible to see the old Hawaii. And this young fella was a direct descendant of the legendary beach boys who inspired writers such as the great Jack London, and many other mainlanders to the ways of the ocean.
I was 15 years older than the boy and considered myself an athlete. One who spent most winters engaged in dangerous activities in mountain passes deep in the remote wilderness north of the 49th parallel. However the kid taught me something new every day. How to swim sideways in the rip. The best way to set a sea anchor when the trades were stiff. What reef to best fish for ahi on. How much you could safely over charge a Japanese tourist without raising the ire of the ever-present tour guides. Each day I was a sponge, soaking up his knowledge.
We made a pretty good canoe team. He knew the ocean, the right time to paddle the channels, so as to not get pounded by the closeouts. I had the strength to paddle the heavy outrigger canoes and the age to effect authority with the tourists who were the economic engine that kept the both of us employed.
Usually after a day spent in the hot sun we would beach our canoe at the small seawall near the Hilton Hawaiian village and walk back towards Diamond Head along the beach. We'd stop at every Banyan tree and my little partner would banter in pidgin with the local waikiki Hawaiian heavyweights who seemed to chill all day everyday in the same spots. I always felt pretty honored that these beach boys considered me one of their own. Surely it was only because of my partner. I was no Kamaaina, but slowly my status was no longer malahini but somewhere in between.
Sadly September rolled around and the tourist trade hit a slack period. My partner had to get back to grade school. I laboured on and used the knowledge the kid had taught me daily. Every Saturday I would venture down to the Wall, a hot spot for the local kids to body board and my partner would spot me watching and he would wait for the biggest, most hollow wave. He'd whip out a Macdonald's tray which he would use as a foil and he'd get the cleanest most spectacular tube ride of the day. As he turned to be certain that I'd seen his triumph, we would flash each other the hand sign he called "Shaka" a peculiar hand motion in which the thumb is extended upwards, the baby finger is extended and all other fingers remain clenched. It seems to be used as a greeting or as a goodbye in the same ambiguous way as the word Aloha.
Then he'd swim out for more.
::: posted by Mega at 10:09 AM
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