The families of Honokai Hale grew up on this coast. Their memories hold what Hāniʻo was, and what it can be again.
“When the kids were younger, we use to go to the now Ko Olina where they had cottages, and families would spend the weekend there to fish, chase crabs at night and catch pipipi and boil them (not sure if they ate them raw) and pick them out with toothpicks.
Remember Uncle Gabby [Kaaiohelo] use to catch a fish and put it on the BBQ, and it was soooo pilau smelling. But they said it taste good.”
Damon J. DuhaylonsodOne of the unique things that West Beach gave to us kids was our own waterfall. Let me explain… Starting from the top of the beach (right off the trail), you would have to walk down to the sand, then to da big salt-water ponds where we all loved to swim. In between the ponds and the ocean was a large coastal reef where we used to stand on to go fishing.
So had da ocean, then about 25 feet of coastal reef running parallel to da ocean, then the salt-water ponds below, then da sand. When da waves got big, da waves would go over the coastal reef and pour into the ponds. Being that the ponds were about 5 feet lower than the coastal reef, da waves would create a huge waterfall as it rushed into the ponds.
All us guys would take turns sitting down, leaning our backs against the “wall” of the coastal reef, and let da waves go over us… da bigger da waves, da bigger da waterfall!
Note: Da location of da salt-water ponds and waterfall is currently between Ko Olina’s 1st and 2nd lagoons.
“Whenever anybody from Honokai went down there [to West Beach] and went fishing, we would all be together. ‘Who like fight this fish?’ You know, ’cause they were really good fishermen. And so I’m the one that had the $10 pole, that when the fish get on em and you pull the fish, the pole break in half. But everybody else had the real expensive fishing pole, so when they would catch something, ‘Eh, you like fight em?’ And I’d be reeling em in, and I never even care what kind of fish had on. I caught one fish. But a lot of them [the other kids] have their preferences of what fish they like to eat. I just like to eat, so bring in the fish, and I’ll eat em…
Sometimes I don’t catch anything. I just mainly there for drink the beer and they would catch, we would eat em. And again, because of my singing, it took me away from all of that stuff. So a part of it is why I stopped singing, because I was, I felt like I was missing out on a lot of things. But yeah, those were happy times being at the ocean.”
“I love to swim in the ocean. I mean, I used to play with the boogie board along the shore, you know, run, jump on the boogie board and whatnot, but not really surfing. My brothers were actually into surfing. My second brother, Dietrix’s older brother used to take him under his wing and teach him how to surf. And he became really good at surfing before he moved away from the islands…
So growing up, looking out our porch, you could see [West Beach]…. I know that my brother and Dietrix actually entered Brown Bags to Stardom, and they wrote a song about that, that beach area… So there was nothing developed back there. It was just all country, all open. And I remember growing up in the summer as we got older. We were like, ‘Hey, let’s go to the beach,’ but everybody’s like, ‘Well, we can’t go on the road because we’re going to get in trouble if we get caught up on that on Farrington Highway, going down to the beach, we’re going to get in trouble. So, okay, well let’s go through the cane fields and we’ll walk all the way down.’… So it was our own private beach before anybody ever seen it.”
“Small kid time we use to camp over there. I remember eating lobster and turtle we cooked over the kiawe wood charcoal fire. The place was all kiawe trees and canefields and never have nobody around but us. Nighttime was very very dark and spooky.”
“The shoreline was like all coral rock kine, I feel like, as far as like Campbell side and stuff. Tracks was our jam, Tracks was our beach, right? So you go to all the beaches closest to your home, West Beach, and then Tracks, like our next stop. And das where we went camping, das where we spent summers. You know, I hated the beach back then. I love it now, though. Funny how that works out.
[Asked if she had specific chores at the beach] You know you gotta take the dishes down to the beach and wash em. Especially if you the oldest girl. [laughing] They no give you just one, two pots. “Hea. Take dis,” one bucket full of dishes.”
Songs written by Damon J. Duhaylonsod
“Honokai My Home” was written about a time when we were surrounded by canefields and there were no stores. Our parents kept us together through the many community events and parties, while we as children played all day! I wrote “Don’t Hesitate” for my Honokai bruddas that called “Rocks” our home break! Growing up surfing at Rocks with your best friends was a total blessing! “Wesside Life” is a mellow song about families living the life on the wesside with pride and aloha!