The biggest waves of Hawaii’s annual winter big wave season haven’t arrived on the north shores of our islands just yet. But the official holding period for the 31st annual Vans Triple Crown of Surfing will begin today on Oahu’s North Shore with opening ceremonies and a lay day in anticipation of a stronger swell […]
Kicking off its eighth annual hula competition on the Big Island today, the Moku O Keawe International Hula Festival offers more than three days of superb hula contests The three-day festival is indeed one of Hawaii’s top annual hula events, featuring hula halau (dance troupes) from Hawaii, the U.S. Mainland and Japan in hula kahiko
In 2010, Hawaii flimmaker Ann Marie Kirk launched the Oiwi Film Festival as a venue for indigenous Hawaiian filmmakers to showcase their work. Three years later, the festival has become a vital annual event for local filmmakers and aficionados of their work, celebrating Hawaii’s burgeoning film culture while providing a platform to tell cinematic stories
The 23rd annual Hula O Na Keiki hula competition, one of the state’s premier children’s solo hula contests, happens this weekend on the grounds of the Kanaapali Beach Hotel on Maui. What started more than two decades ago as a single-day competition has grown to three days of dance contests and an accompanying festival of
Lei made from tiny, colorful shells carried by surf onto the beaches of the island of Niihau are among the most prized in the world. A master artisan may take years to craft a multi-strand Niihau shell lei like the ones pictured here, with much of that time spent combing beaches for the desired colors
The long-established, world-renowned coffee-growing region of Kona is home to dozens of coffee farms, many of them family-owned and –operated. For more than 185 years, this area, rooted on the slopes of the Big Island’s Hualalai and Mauna Loa volcanoes, has served up some of the best specialty coffee in the world. And for the
Hapa-haole was a Hawaii-born music genre that found great popularity with residents and visitors from the 1920s through the 1950s. Born at at time when songs with Hawaiian language lyrics were largely frowned upon, hapa-haole songs—with their English lyrics and, at times, outright made-up Hawaiian words—found an audience drawn to their romanticized descriptions of the
Never mind asking where it starts and ends, ask even longtime Oahu residents about the existence of the Pearl Harbor Bike Path and you might get some quizzical looks. And that’s OK. Most don’t realize there’s a great bike path that runs from the Aiea Bay State Recreation Area, just a few hundred yards north
It’s 10 a.m. on a sunny Saturday at Kalaeloa Beach Park. Early in the day for resident beachgoers who, on most afternoons, flock to this lovely, hidden stretch of white sand in the backyard of one of Oahu’s largest industrial parks. Not so early for overnight campers already firing up small barbecue grills and popping
Get a peek into Maui’s sugar plantation past at the fifth annual Lahaina Plantation Days, this Fri., Oct. 18 and Sat., Oct. 19 at the former Pioneer Mill Co. smokestack—a can’t miss town landmark—on Lahainaluna Road. The two-night event, which happens from 5 to 10:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, celebrates West Maui’s plantation and
For the past six decades, paddlers have annually challenged the unpredictable and often-treacherous waters of the Kaiwi Channel, which separates Molokai and Oahu, to compete in the Molokai Hoe Molokai-to-Oahu outrigger canoe race, considered the world championship of outrigger canoe paddling for men. Hoe is pronounced “ho-eh,” without a glottal stop. It’s the Hawaiian word
This Saturday’s Ironman Triathlon World Championship on the Big Island will mark the 35th year of the grueling 140.6-mile three-sport race. And if you can’t be on the sidelines of its Kona Coast course personally cheering on competitors, you’ll be able to watch it live on the Web wherever you are. The race, founded in
