Aloha Isaac, I knew that Mike Oxley had to go to Waipahu because Campbell wasn’t done yet. I didn’t know John Sadowski and Mike were classmates. Heck John may have been at Mike’s funeral, but I didn’t get to meet him. I met Mike Phillips that day, he was helping Jimmy fix up the old family house in Leeward Estates. I lived on the other end of that street, so when I was going to Ewa Beach Elementary I passed by their house every day.
Jimmy was telling me he went to Ewa Beach Elementary, but he didn’t say you were classmates. He’ll be home on Sunday.
Auntie Eleanor knows everyone from the days she worked at the post office. It was a pretty small community before they built Kulana Village and Ewa Estates, so it wasn’t that hard to get to know a lot of people. I imagine everyone stopped in at Tanaka Store as well.
Isaac was Tanaka Store your father’s store or your uncle’s? I remember your uncle and aunt working there because Lynn was my classmate, but I always thought your father owned the store.
I hope John and Ronald check this out and set us straight with their stories.
Another connection a lot of Ewa Beach kids from the 60’s have is that they went into the military and ended up in Viet Nam. Mike was an officer in the Air Force. I think Powdercoat mentioned that he went there as well.
Finally, another Ewa Beach family, the Manley’s, started the Koa Puna motorcylce club, and it’s grown into a pretty big group. I think Eli started it. The only bikes we rode were dirt bikes, so I don’t know too much about them. We went to Ewa Beach Elem with the Langley boys. Eli and Oneula were classmates.
Did Eli Langley start the Koa Puna bike club? I believe Nelson Oasay was I president when I saw him last, which was a couple weeks before he passed away. He gave me the T-shirt off his back, a classic Koa Puna shirt from a Hau Bush camping trip in 96'. Get plenty pukas now, so I don't wear it much because I don't want it to get worse. But it's on the top shelf and I think of Nelson every time I look at it. He was in Florida for a work related seminar and I was living there at the time, so he stayed with me and my family for the weekend. He used to ride dirt bikes with us when he came back to Ewa Beach from VN. Good rider, too. A lot of that era went to Viet Nam; Mel, Charlie, Mike, Bolo, Rudy... I was younger then them, so missed the draft by about 1 year (I'm still thanking the Gods for that!). Empty Lot had a lot of regulars back out in the water after the war, and there were a couple that didn't make it back, at least not alive. RIP.
Hey Mike, I got their name wrong, the Langleys. My understanding was that Eli started it, and he was on the Big Island for a while. I heard he was banned from the B.I. and if he gets caught over there, he will have to spend a good amount of time in lockup. I don’t know if Eli is still active in the club, someone told me he doesn’t ride bikes anymore, too many crashes. Too many stories, many must be wrong. We know that we can’t tell the WHOLE story cause someone will be looking for us if we do.
Wonnadda thing, people don’t even know where the real Hau Bush Park is anymore. They think the new park where Sandtracks is Hau Bush. Sadly, Hau Bush is a mess from years of neglect.
I was in Ewa Beach last November for Bolo's 60th. I drove my kids past Hau Bush down to Cove to show them the old surf spots. It really was a mess. No one seems to be maintaining anymore. Also ran into Eli when I was in Ewa Beach. I hadn't seen him in a super long time. He looked the same as he did in high school, but the hair white now (but he still get hair! unlike me :-). Eli was always a pretty mellow guy. But we all had a bit of a kolohe side to us. Someday I hope to out grow it! Nahhh!
All you empty lots guys must be laughing at us arrogant SC guys. Lots and that whole area is still pretty much the same, but the SC side is such a mess. I know when I was a punk kid, I’d be a little rude to the Lots guys when they came down to surf the lefts at SC. Now I have to walk down from the new park or if Joey is home, I can park there. Days of parking in front of the break and having houses, showers, and food right there are gone.
Yes indeed, John Sadowski was and still is a very active athlete. Waipahu was the football team at the time. He was a halfback and Bulla Rio was the full back. I believe Meign or Mane Panerio was the quarterback, not sure of his first name spelling. I moved up to the Campbell varisiy team the next year and missed playing against them. I did however, play against Stan Sadowski when we played Iolani in 1966. I ran track with Bumbum Sadowski, Farell Sojot, and Herb Pruse at Campbell 65', 66', and 67'. Aloha, M.
And thats a good thing. When SC gets good and I mean really good like when the 1st reef breaks which we hardly see anymore, you get some youngsters with no respect out there. Well it's all good cause they don't really know were to line up at when that big peak rolls in anyway. It will get better when Haseko closes up the road where Papipi road ends. That area will be for pedestrian access only. Vehicular traffic will access through Ocean Point to get to the Marina golf course, and whatever is left of the beaches from Sandtrack on. The original Haubush and Shark Country area is going to be turned into a park with pedstrian walkways. Bottom line is that currently, there still is no parking at Shark Country. YES!! BTW, it used to get really big before they built the reef runway at HNL airport. If you look at it from a topographical view, the reef runway is in the way and hinders the South East swell. I remember John Sadowski and Barney Silva surfing SC on a big swell with some 10 foot faces. Aloha, M
Powdercoat, I was out at SC in the late 70’s during a couple of bigger swells. I used to work the night and weekend shifts, so I had a lot of surfing time. I think your brother Randy was out there a couple of those times with us as well.
I always loved the swell that would come about late March, I called it the Easter swell. Not crowded and clean south with long lefts.
My brother and I went out Saturday, but we missed it by about an hour or so. The winds were too strong so it wasn’t clean. Saw a couple of friends from the mid 70’s we grew up with. One was Randy’s classmate from Campbell '75. I mentioned a few friends from that class and he said “yep, but all those guys are dead now.” Didn’t realize it but it was true, and kind of sad to think about it that way.
Finished off the day paddling back to sandtracks and going in.
I spoke to Nathan Moody on the phone the other night and told him about this great thread and how all his EB buddies were posting good talk story; he was stoked but alas, brudda no can handle da computa; Iʻm hoping maybe heʻll come around; it ainʻt that hard to figure out and he is still one sharp cookie, building boards and surfing more consistantly than all of us; him and Clay Eaton are alive and well; really enjoyed the old fotos of them; so Iʻll keep working on “Smooth” [Nathan] until he grasps the power of the internet [to sling bullshit and disrupt lives]; I know as a builder he would appriciate some of the great board threads on Sways…stay wet my friends!!!
hi Harry, my dad had the store built in 1948 and my mon ran it till i graduated in 1968, then she took a medical retirement. my uncle and aunt Ted and Phyllis Nosaka; who owned the land that we leased from for the store, took over the store and ran it till they lease their property to 7-11. the quansit hut that i used for my board shop was actually next to the store and we lived in it till 1965ish and then the quansit was moved to my uncle Donald Tanaka who took over the lease from Nelson Kang’s parents.
i ran into Sexy Rexy Thompson today at the peir at kawaehae where he works and told him about swaylocks. hopefully he will sign in and shed more light on ewa beach road. by the way his mom worked and i think they took over the hardward store that use to be in the shopping center somewhere between first hawaiian band and foodland. i thinking it might have been where sloop johns, it wasn’t too long ago but my memory bank is not organized enough for me to sort that fact…i’m sure Rex can varify that for us when he comes on…i also spoke to Cleigh Eaton tonite and told him he should add some input since he was like the second wave of surfers of Empty Lot… he was telling me about the start up of Ewa Beach Surf Club and surfing Campbells in the 60s with long boards…well hopfully these guys will sign on and add more fun to the good ole days… aloha ike
Hi Isaac, Rex PMd me. I haven’t seen him for a while. We used to live on the same street along with the Ontais. I think he’ll start adding as time goes by. I used to work for YB shooting videos and photos, and I saw him a couple of times on the big island. A while ago our company sold HTB and YB. Rex was good friends with Mike Chevalier who was another SC ripper.
I think the hardware store was owned by Mr Gee. who also owned the Royal Pharmacy and Gee’s Jewelers.
Rex’s dad used to pick me and Kevin Kahalekulu up on the corner of Farringtom hwy and Ft weaver when we used to hitch hike home after school in town. The Kevin and I would go surfing at Officer’s Beach and Mr. Thompson would come out on his wood paipo and surf. He was a cool guy, and I liked him. He was one of the last guys I know that stayed on the wood paipo. Last I heard both Rex’s parents have past away.
Go Isaac, go. You’re bringing all the boys in. I hope John Sadowski comes aboard and tells us what it was really like in the early 60s. My memories only go back to 1965-66.
Ha I thought last weekend was going to be good. Sunday I surfed a blown out Diamond head and it was 3 times bigger than what we surfed. My friends surfed town on Saturday and said it was big. Diamond head is always a little bigger.
yep sharkcountry, that swell was a total dissapointment on this side! the last several before that one were all really strong! had one day at campbells on the previous swell, the wednesday.. the big day, i swear there were some 6' sets. and they said this last one was supposed to be bigger but it barely got 2'-3'. yokes wasnt much better. i did get some fun ones at "hideouts". small but hollow little zippers. did you folks used to surf it? its a couple hundred yards or so up the beach from barbers point harbor. a little left that breaks close to the reef there.
Hey Makakilio, I only surfed the spot close to the cement mill on the west side of the point. There was a left and a right that would meet on bigger days. I surfed the left and have seen it like some of your photos. Not familiar with some of the other spots you have shown, like hideouts.
Have surfed at Tracks, Maili Pt (lefts), green lanterns, Waianae, the Makaha side of Lahilahi (lefts), Makaha, Keaau (both the park and down the beach where the slab is), and Yokes.
Never surfed at other spots, but back then there wasn’t much of a crowd except at Makaha and Yokes.
yeah, sounds like you guys grew up at a special time in ewa beach. love the old photos and stories!
powdercoat: havent surfed sharkcountry in years but caught it pretty damn good a few times loooooooong time ago. the last memorable session out there was the day before iniki. surfed by myself for 3 hours before mike sears joined me. i sunburned my eyes that day i stayed out so long. but the best i ever caught it was 1989. 11th grade, campbell high school. we brought our boards to school and went straight from school. it was solid six feet, pouring rain and oily glass. and these heaving double ups like ive never seen out there before or since. big heavy, thick barrels but you could roll in to the double up early and get all set up first then pull in to this heaving dark pit!
