in 1963 I bought a 24’’ gooseneck
and a box spring seat for my bicycle
at the time this was what was necessary
to make my bike cool…
Ive been thinking of making a cool bike.
was it arakawa’s?
was that waipahu?
was that a special bike store?
is it extinct? I’ve searched a little internet
to no avail…
…ambrose…
waipahu bycycle shop
otherwise known as bustahs’ (the old man)
across the street from Arakawas
both extinct but both left behind a legacy of memories
bustah’s was known more for its fishing supplies than bikes
favorite hang out of sharkbait and his bud timmy foo
times supermarket behind was where we all got our seafood when in waipahu.
we got all our little league baseball equipment from arakawas as well as all our palaka clothes.
i miss the cane and all that came from it even the “black rain” because the sweet scent of burning cane would also be in the air.
Any old timer EB local knew who “bushtree stump” was?
he surfed shark country in the early 70’s on a twin fin fish.
troll hawaiian short and super stocky huge afro buss up teeth beeg smile
he was built like a tree stump and his head looked like one bush
hence “bush tree stump”
da bugga could surf though fast fast fast
and a goofy foot
used to surf only the inside shark country double up between first break and haubush
dropping in on every one.
Aloha,
In reference to Bustah"s in Waipahu. Charlie Mizunaka had a board that his dad bought him from there that had the label of Waipahu Surfboards. Must be that that shop decided to get into selling “pop - out” boards with the Waipahu label. I know that some of you remember all of the boards from small kid time, Shark, Ten Toes… Some of the stores sold them, I tried to win one in a drawing at Gem Kapalama, but they neva pick my number. My dad finally got me a Nalu Niu, from I don’t know where, but I was stoke with a brand new foam core surfboard. When shortboards came around and we couldn’t get one we stripped down our old ones. That Nalu Niu when stripped down didn’t even have a stringer that went all the way through the board. I was just an insert peice of wood inset about 1/4 inch into the foam.
As for “Bush” I remember him being from Makaha side. He was a goofyfoot and came down to surf Shark Country from time to time. He just caught any wave that he wanted, just dropped in. (this was before David Ontai - similar surfing) Even at Makaha he did this. He rode really short boards for his size and could surf good. No one gave him a bag time for this as he was on thick guy. Another guy that surfed in Ewa Beach was Pete Thompson, he also was a big guy that rode really short boards. Really thick also. I don’t know that happened to him. I think I heard that he was into the Hawaiian Sovereignty stuff.
In response also to Chris Gardner’s infamous board, “the Grape” I remember him riding that board. Chris was one of the best shortboarders and shaper’s from Ewa Beach…all good times. Really good to remember.
ButchP
busters is still THE place to go if you wanna get good gear like a 14' whipping pole or a good pair of tabis. the kind with the nails on the bottom! sure miss buster. automatic kama'aina rate da guy! whether you wanted it or not! no more that kind already.
Oneula:
Sorry to interupt here. I have been reading this tread since it started.
Oneula I see you mentioned Waipahu. When I was living on the North Shore in the late 70’s early 80’s I work in Waipahu at the Bakery that makes all the Hamburger Buns for McDonald’s for all the Islands. We also copacked all the Hot Dog and Hamburger Buns for Luv’s bakery. Just wondering if you know the Bakery? My Dad was the Plant Manager there for 5 years. Being a Haloe we stayed away from EWA Beach. We always heard it wasn’t safe for Blond Hair Blue Eyed Haloes. My family lived in Kailua and I choose to live on the North Shore. We surfed mainly the North Shore and Town. We lived at the Rainbow Hilton on the 19th floor with a view of Kaisers the first month on Oahu. My bother and I had our own room with room service all three meals and took the elevator to go surfing.
We went surfing in the morning when it was still dark. Around 8:00 when all the local boys started to fill the line up we paddled in. In the afternoons we would surf again towards the evening and surf in the dark for at least 1 hour. My brother and I kept a very low profile. When my brother when to school at Kailua High School he would get beat up by the locals real bad. however it was good because he became tuff as nails and the locals quit beating him up. I was 18 so I did not have the peer presure that he had. In time we would surf in prime time without hassle and made a lot of friends with many local boys. When you first come over from the mainland (Huntington Beach) it is so intimitating.
Most of the guy’s I worked with at the Bakery in Waiphu lived in Eva Beach. They would bring all kinds of good grinds and feed me almost daily. Kahula Pig, Maui Onions, Lomi Lomi Samon, all Kind Fish, After work it was Miller High Life and POKE and Cuttle Fish and Lei Hui Mui. (Misspelled) The local boys I worked with became O’Hana. Some of the guys were pure blooded Hawaiian. They were the nicest people you will ever meet. I love Hawaii and miss it very much.
Life makes us take different directions along the way.
I wish I surfed in EWA Beach at least once. I surfed everywhere else but because of the stories I heard about how we would not live another day if we surfed EWA. Heavy reputation that place.Plus the Shark Story’s! V-land had plenty of Tigers. It’s super weird to hear all you local boys talk about growing up there. I really enjoy hearing your stories.
Thanks for sharing this time in history that has always been a mystery to me.
I hope you don’t mind me ease dropping.
Kind regards,
surfding
I lived in Pearl City in Momilani heights, Arakawa’s was the spot where I got Cloth, resin, acetone, all the stuff to build my boards, '62 I went to Waipahu High and would surf Hau Bush and Shark country with my next door neighbor Kazu Lui-Kwan, he was Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiian, but looked like he was all Hawaiian.
Going with his family I never got any flack, but mom started taking us to Barber’s O beach more than EB, but my first month while we were housed at the Prince Kuhio in Waikiki, I went to Kaimuki High, I got bitch slapped within the first week, but the guy came back and said that I hadn’t told da’ teacha’, I was all right.
I had wanted to be an electrical engineer, took correspondence class from ITT Tech when I was 12 years old, Kaimuki had electronics classes, I signed up and quickly became the smartest guy in the class room. It was a class of only guys and got away with stuff that you couldn’t in a coed class room.
The teacher brought in a big power supply and started explaining the input voltage and the output voltage and amperages, it was somewhere near 400 volts, but miliamps, he asked if any of you fucks want to come up and hold onto the wires while he plugged it in. The local boys started in on no way were they going to get electrocuted, I raised my hand and said I’d hang onto the wires while getting shocked, they went wild, my hair stood up and I got NO more shit after that, “Haole you fawking crazy”.
Waipahu was more of a country school, I never got beefed, but last year while looking at Shark Country from the construction yard next to the road, a pick up load of local boys drove by and told me to beat it, hell, I most likely surfed with their grandparents. After all, it was Aloha Day, ALOHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
i think “mizu” still surfs if its the guy I’m thinking of…
A little on the short side, mustache and always wears a baseball hat. Drives a pickup and is retired now.
Used to longboard but now only standup paddles.
I used to surf with him all the time at officer’s(white plains) and haubush(new) but i don’t get to white plains that much as its become a mess since the navy went away. Too bad about his sister she used to wear a hat all the time too and was “Auntie” to alot of the groms at white plains and haubush. So many ashes spread out in the lineup these days so i always say hi to all of them when ever i paddle out.
Regarding “bushtree” he kind of reminded me of a Junior moepono(power) before there was a junior. But when ever he cracked a smile with those buss up teeth you couldn’t help but smile and laugh too. The guy could surf on that twin fin fish though, I actually believed it was a knee board he stood up on. Cory(Coreno’s son) was the only other guy I knew who could surf on anything. But then he lived at Haubush park with his family.
Also anyone remembered “caveman”? He was always bolo head and had the letters “caveman” tattoo’d on the his forehead and the tops off his fingers that showed when he closed his fist so you would know who was knocking you out(rumor was he did it all himself with a bic pen while at campbell). The rumor also was he did time at OCC so everyone used to be scared of him, but one day while bodysurfing in front shark country to get his boards on the rocks he got carried head first into the rocks infront of sharkcountry. My grand aunt girlie (retired school teacher from molokai) who was living in her brother’s beach house (the red one infront of shark country) came to his rescue and patched him up. Caveman never forgot and always made sure she was “protected” from that day on as break-in’s were common during those druggies days coming off the 60’s (Its much worse down here now though).
Surf ding
of course i remember the bakery. And it was never as bad as everyone made it out to be. There were allot of great surfers and surfboard builders from the 60’s-70’s that came from Ewa Beach. I think “Kimo” Greene is still making boards out in sand island. In fact I think Ewa Beach was a much more beautiful and typical plantation type town in those days. Silva Store, Tanaka Store, Barney’s Burgerhouse and the chevron/texaco service stations used to be the local hangouts like the bowling alley. Now people pull up to taco bell, mcdonalds, or burgerking and don’t even bother to get out of their cars to shop.
things change
as do we
Howzit Bernie,Whn I lived on Oahu we surfed Ewa Bch a few times but we ealy didn't know which spot it was since we just paddled out to where the best wave seemed to be. The thing is we never got hassled by any body and the other guys were actually pretty nice to surf with. There was also a restaurant in Ewa that we would go to for dinner every once in a while and it was a steak house type place that had really good food. We also had a neighbor who's wife was a civilian working on the army base I think so we would drive over the mountain to surf Makaha and we never got hassled there either. We were a mellow few guys that repected the other guys in the water and I think that may have been the rason we made it unscathed surfing those spots. Hope you are doing OK these days and when I come to Oahu I will let you know so we can get together and your brother too and talk story. Aloha,Kokua
Jim what a life you have had!
Incredible.
Kind regards,
surfding
Buster's / Bustah's; we bought all our fishing gear from there, too. And school clothes, dishes, pots, pans.. everything! from Arakawas. Sometimes Wigwam Dept Store. Remember the cracked seed island there? They had warm manapuas too, if you got there early enough in the morning. Arakawas sold us our judo gi, and all the different color belts, but you had to show certification to buy anything but a white belt. I took juda at the Hong Wan Ji Mission and Buddist Temple up past the sugar refinery on the mauka side of Waipahu Street above Arakawas, and kinda across the street from the old movie theater. I went looking for it last year when I was in the area, but it's gone now; probably has been for a while.
The restaurant in Ewa town: Tenny's Tavern. My mom waitressed there for a few years. We'd ride our bikes there from Ewa Beach and my mom would buy us milk shakes and hamburgers with her tip money. They had the best burgers!
I remember Caveman and his tatoos. Stocky, quiet guy. Real dark and muscled. He hung out with George DeClue, George Rapoza, Jerry Hunter, Akiona brothers, Tom Phillips and crew. I used to know his name, but can't remember right now. He may have been from Nanakuli? Entered the Ewa Beach scene with George DeClue, I think. Pretty carzy days then.
Howzit EwaBeachRd, No that was not the name of the restaurant, it was a night time restaurant with a Marine type name and I wish I could remeber exactly what the name was but I know it wasn't Tenny's Tavern. Aloha.Kokua
Maybe Rudy's Tavern in Honouli'uli? Down on the right hand side of road when heading toward Waipahu from Ewa side. My Parents used to go there for happy hour sometimes. It had another name for a while too, but I can't remember what it was.
There was also the the Sloop John B in Ewa Beach?
The restaurant was in the shopping center near 1st Hawaiian Bank. It was a bar/restaurant where a lot of GIs would go. I think it was called Sloop John B. For a while we had this crazy ass Samoan living next door who would get really wild when he drank. He was a real bad ass. One might I was helping clean up at Foo’s Bakery and I see my neighbor going at it with 3 GIs outside in the parking lot. I didn’t stay around to see would got the best of whom, but he was handling.
My friend Peter Oliveira’s dad worked at the bar as bartender. After Issac Tanaka sold me his really cool board, Peter would bug me to sell it to him non stop. I finally gave in and told him $50 which he agreed to. That was about 1971 or so, and we surfed at Lots a lot back then.
I went back to see Issac asked him if he had another board. Issac sold me the 1st board for $25, so when Peter found out he was pissed. I got a second board from Issac, then he made a board for Timmy Foo with a similar air brushed bottom, and board for my brother. I think Issacs parents owned Tanaka store on the corner of Ft Weaver and
Papipi. His shop was in a quonset hut behind his uncles house which was
across the street from SC. Timmy din’t surf well, so he let me borrow it a lot. I used it in the High School meet at Bowls when I was a sophmore. That contest was the worse experience I had because they didn’t have water patrol back then. After that I would paddle out during contests and surf until they started doing water patrol. I was out at Johns one day during a Ewa Beach contest and Cal Eaton comes over and says I gotta go in or he will have to make me go in. Good thing we were friends because he was really cool about it. I caught a few more then went in.
Bush was an a-hole, who’d show up on the days when the south swell came in. He used to ride a fish out at SC. I remember one epic day when the waves would break outside SC on the outer reef. You could paddle way out and catch a white water wall that would start backing off then reform where the normal outside break was. Bush was getting some insane rides that day.
David Ontai grew up down the street from us. His dad and my dad went to Kamehameha together, and we went to Kamehmeha together but he was told to not come back for his senior year. David and I were pretty good friends, but he’s a wildman. He’ll take off on anyone. I don’t think the blackshorts or wolfpack stop him either.
David and I were out at SC one day just me him and one older guy who used to be an a-hole when were kids. David saw the guy and went nuts, he started dropping in on him and being a real prick. I asked him what was up and he says “don’t you remember that guy from when were kids and how he used to give us a bad time?” I said yeah. He tells me he’s going to get back at him and just keeps going. The guy was dumb enough to ask what’s up with all the hassling and David says “don’t you remember me from long time ago, when you used to give us kids shit? How do like it now? Don’t like it go home.”
One day just me and my brother are out and David comes paddling out. The waves were pretty good, and we were having fun. We were talking story and he was kinda cool, but after a while he just starts going when he wants. Some guys walked down from the park and were watching us from the beach but they never did paddle out. I think they recognized David. He has a very unique style. That day my brother disappears, then David disappears, and I’m out for a good 20 minutes sitting there waiting and no waves. Then I get one and for some reason my board stops dead just after I drop into a wave. I gotta wait until another one comes. When I get in they ask me “didn’t you see that big shark?” I didn’t see it, but I think I hit it. One thing about shark country is that most of the time when there’s waves, the water is so murky you can’t see your feet hanging over the side of your board. The only reason you see sharks is because the fins pop out of the water.
[quote="$1"]
I remember Caveman and his tatoos. Stocky, quiet guy. Real dark and muscled. He hung out with George DeClue, George Rapoza, Jerry Hunter, Akiona brothers, Tom Phillips and crew. I used to know his name, but can't remember right now. He may have been from Nanakuli? Entered the Ewa Beach scene with George DeClue, I think. Pretty carzy days then.
[/quote]
HA! i still see jerry hunter all the time! hes real mellow now. him and his son pauley boy do alot of fishing, own couple boats. jerry still paddles out every once in a great while if tracks gets good.
~~Aloha!
Hi Kokua: I was a young gullible haloe. It was the locals I worked with at the bakery told me not to surf EWA because it was dangerous and the breaks were full of sharks.
After reading all these post I think I could have had a lot of fun trying some of these breaks out. It sounds like a pretty fun stretch of surf.
It seems to be a very protected part of the Island. The stories seem to help keep that way.
Kind regards,
surfding
some places are at their best
in mind and myth.
cherished locales world wide
can become tawdry.
too much familiarity
becomes a funeral pall.
too many spots with
too many expectations
unfulfilled become less.
The Magic /Mana grows greater
gazing across the fence
into the field of bright green
grass with slender shoots
glistening with dew in the dawn’s
early windless May,interesting word :
May giving permission and promise.
every place world wide is a cherished
“Rembrant” worth everything until abused
and defiled and then worth nothing.
Cherish the spot you surf ,
learn to adapt equipment
to fit it’s moods. In time
fine and cherished memories
will fill volumes.
Meanwhile back at the Bu …
…ambrose…
long live Ewa
the magic place
where the sunset lives
a calm country life.
close your eyes
and the movie plays
on the back of our eyelids.
Long Live EWA
Ambrose, in the late 60’s bicycles were our only means of transportation because we were too young to drive. Our whole world was only a few miles long then there was a barrier of sugar cane or water.
The cool bike frame was the Schwinn, but I had a Huffy because my dad got it on base. With the Scwinn, you could do wheelies all the way around the block. I had me a RAD 20" bike with a box spring seat on a real long seat pole, and really long goose neck from Buster’s (Waipahu Bicycle Store). I had a fat slick tire and a flared rear fender. I loved that bike even though it was a pain to go anywhere fast. My brother and I would ride our bikes down to the beach house where our grandmother’s sister was living. One hand on the handle bars one holding our boards under our arms. It really helped to have the stingray style bikes with the ape hanger style handle bars because you could rest your board on the bars.
When we got to be in middle school we learned how to take them apart and rebuild them. Every summer we’d take our bikes apart and repaint them. But before we did that we’d ride out to the artesian well ponds that were just Ewa of Barber’s Point and ride our bikes down the slight incline and launch ourselves into the water. These days you see all the dirt bike guys doing huge moves on TV. We were doing our version of that in the late 60’s early 70’s. We’d swim in those ponds all summer and have a blast playing in the lilly pads. One pond had Koi and other fish swimming in it, but we didn’t swim in that pond. Then one year I went down there and there wasn’t anything growing in the ponds, just clear water. That’s when we stopped going in the water there.
High School years we stepped up to the 10 speed.
Buster’s was the coolest store around and we’d always find a reason to go there. They had everything you’d want for bikes and fishing, and other sports stuff. I used to get models cars there, the 1/24 scale kits from Monogram and Revel and I’d build them. I had them all over the house up above the curtains. I think that was one of the things that sent me on my long strange trip in this life. Nothing like being in a closed room for hours with spray paint and model glue.
Arakawa’s was like Buster’s for everything else. They were what Walmart is today but they were dialed into what locals need. Across Arakawa’s and Buster’s was Big Way food market. That’s where we’d get fresh fish. Towards then end of that era, I stopped at Big Way to get some fish and all they had was Aku, but the Aku had those little white worms all through it. My wife and were kinda freaked out, and I never went back there again.
For us “country folk” Waipahu was as far as you would have to go. You could get everything you need there including cars and all the building supplies needed to build or fix a house. It’s really sad to see how the times have changed that town, but not nearly as sad as what happened to Ewa Beach.
Here’s a few photos from the past. Any Shark Country local will recognize uncle Ted’s Bus and Uncle Sonny’s red/brown house. Both of these sit directly in front of SC. I included a shot of the old Ewa Mill from Geiger Road about 1978, a shot of the new Barber’s Point harbor being built and a shot from way up above Makakilo looking towards Ewa Beach about 1990 or so. The first increment of Soda creek was going in, and you can see the sugar cane road that is now the North South rd.
