Tyler Vaughan

Writer

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"County on Your Corner"

http://hawaiiahe.com/2013/02/04/“county-on-your-corner”-comes-to-kahului/

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TEDx Maui

THE DREAM IS REAL 

  Last Sunday residents and visitors in search of a little knowledge, culture, and inspiration convened at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center for a full day of lectures at this independently organized TED event. The theme, “The dream is real”, laid the foundation for speakers that have refined their passions into a way of being, discipline and livelihood. A broad variety of topics such as traditional celestial navigation, minimalist architecture, aging, renewable energy, and the power of the spoken word were addressed by engaging and qualified speakers hailing from both the mainland and right here in Hawaii. Attendees were also treated to performances by Next Level Theatre Productions, slack-key guitarist and singer Makana, and prodigy violinist Wenlu Duffy.

  The vast array of subjects and interests discussed by the presenters assured that all in attendance could find something to resonate with, but also made for a very long day. The first presenter took the stage at 9 and the dissertations didn’t wrap up until 5 pm. Excluding two half hour “conversation breaks” and a one hour break for a healthy and tasty box-lunch, it was intellectual input until the bell rang. Musical entertainment and dinner followed and the bar was even open after school got out.

  It’s said that it takes a village to raise a baby, and the communion of the presenters created a something all its own. The subject matter of the speakers was as different as the sun and the moon, but their was a unified thread that wove it all seamlessly together. Whether it was a physicist, watershed expert, or pop-musician turned gospel singer, didn’t really matter, what brought these creators together was a profound relationship with their craft and some philosophies that they’d absorbed through mastering their instruments. You had the famed visionary artist Alex Grey and his cosmically awesome process, product and perspective discuss his evolution as an artist and the influence of art on his psyche and form of being. You had poet Kim Rosen, who opened the event with her lyrically refined tribute to language, and her touching story about the healing power of the voice. Viewers even got to see unseen faces of Hawaii through the custom eyes of filmmaker Paul Atkins and heard the entrepreneurial guru Jim Channon’s call to the wild.

  Hawaii showed up big with presentations from accomplished masters who shared their kapuna wisdom. Surfer and lifeguard Archie Kelapa introduced us to the power of the ocean and shared some truly insightful words about our greatest fears. Sixteen year-old WenLu Duffy of Kula, Maui enchanted listeners with her expert rendering of a somber arrangement by German composer Max Bruch. It was a pleasure you be introduced to Kalepa Baybayan and to learn how he and his crew are using the wisdom of traditional celestial navigation to orientate themselves and transverse the globe as their ancestors did. Things got radical with Kamea Hader, a young painter of Honolulu who gathers international artists to collaborate, and Makana, whose shared his love with the audience with carefree intimacy. Not to mention his powerful voice which shook this author deep into the barrel of his chest. With all these impressive presenters and the gracious direction of the island’s own handsome hosts Kainoa Horcajo and Lia Krieg, Maui painted the background for this meeting with her own unique sun-streaked colors. 

  TED talks are named for Technology, Energy and Design, but this event closed more Technology, Energy, Divine. The team enlisted to conlcude this year’s TED talk was pastor Michael Bernard Beckwith and his joyous wife Rickie Byars Beckwith. Rickie shared her passion for living through her voice and inspired song. Michael Bernard Beckwith preached of his spiritual revelation and encouraged recognizing a nondenominational God who is omnipresent and available to all that will ultimately prevail. It was a change of pace to go from intellectual and artistic discussions to a head-on approach with a sermon. But this whole day was relentlessly vast. The human experience was addressed on all frontiers by scientists, teachers, historians, revivalists, culturists, prodigies, warriors, stewards and guardians.  A little religion may have been just the right seal for this reunion on the summit of a volcanic mountaintop in the middle of the ocean. 

  We started the day with a chanted Hawaiian blessing from the locals and ended with the chance stand together, join hands and sing, hearts echoing our dreams. That is about as real as it gets. 

[tylervaughan-blog]

Common Grounds

Common Grounds

  Romantic and exaggerated descriptions are wasted on a homebreak. Superficial attitudes and lopsided perspectives just don’t cut it around here. Don’t have much to do with the bottom line. A homebreak knows the whole story. 

  A homebreak doesn’t need you to make a scene or take a stand in her defense; just subtly encourage that she be respected. Don’t hesitate and be sure to move efficiently when you interrupt wave watching to retrieve the plastic bag filled with trash and hand it back to the dick-head who threw it out his car window. And when your overzealous buddy is reaming some guy out in the lineup for being a kook, it isn’t really necessary for the whole crew to gang up on him and read ‘em the riot act. Just be sure he knows theres a good four or five of you intently watching how the whole ordeal plays out. A homebreak demands presence.

  You and your friends might think you’re the hot ticket these days, but you’re at least partially ignorant to a whole slew of other surfers that she has accommodated over the past 50 years. And those guys were undoubtedly tougher than you. A worthy spot tends to attract loyal followers, and will continue to do so after you and your buddies are long gone, so don’t get all jealous boyfriend on her. Hoot fresh faced groms into waves and acknowledge your elders. Show some respect to that old, gritty loke who surfs in the middle when it’s small and clean and often cruises the boardwalk with his black shades on, wearing a black sleeveless tee and black cut-off jeans, actually smoking Marlboro Blacks. Pay attention when he describes his last wipe-out that kept him out of the water for weeks. Yesterday you didn’t even know he had been surfing the place for 40 years strong. Yesterday you didn’t even know Marlboro Blacks existed. A homebreak is all about the details. 

  Yeah it was just a few of you three winters ago when it was churning out identical five wave, A-frame sets for hours on end. You and your best friends lining up for standup barrels, one after another, screaming joy for an entire afternoon. Just about as good as it gets in this town, or on this entire seaboard for that matter. But even though it was special and you were special, don’t trick yourselves into thinking that you were the only ones or the best that ever were. Remember those that have honed their skills on those steep, ledging drops in that very spot. Some got so good that they rode those crisp, heaving peaks straight out of this cold beachfront town into foreign waves that most of us couldn’t even look at long enough to think about tackling. Think about the all the others. Countless sessions for countless surfers feeding countless dreams. A homebreak produces.

  And it was also just the boys around when it went flat for two months and the ocean couldn’t do much but lap peacefully upon the shoreline. You were the only ones watching and waiting. Some of you couldn’t help but pass by early in the morning on the way to work, just to confirm the hopelessness of the situation. Others came down later to drink coffee and languidly hang because they had no where else to go. But when the pros show up on tour and happen into the best day of the year, they are going to get some good waves whether you like it or not. Demand respect and be courteous hosts. Let her shine in all her spitting glory and show herself to new eyes. She’s not yours. You and the boys are still going to get a lot of the good ones, and your local national treasure is going to show the visitors who’s boss anyway. A homebreak impresses. 

  As surfers, we feel that what goes down on a proper swell out front is the most important act we know, and consequently it can become quite easy to slight the fringes of our sacred zones. But let us not forget the passer-bys that walk along the boardwalk promenade, past where the old pier burnt down, through the gloating new apartments and store fronts that pushed out all that low income housing and sent the tenants inland. These individuals preserve their mother tongues as they converse in the language of old on a Sunday stroll along the shore, mostly oblivious to the volatile conditions of the sea that make or break our spirits day in and day out, year after year after year. They are as much a part of the whole scene as each one of us. Because a homebreak isn’t just about the fleeting moments we spend in flux, ascending and descending aqueous scales of a ubiquitous, ever changing sea song, it’s about the lives we strive to maintain in an attempt to root ourselves upon the sturdy land where we rise and each day face the great berth of a fathomless unknown.