November 19-23, 2003

© Skate Scene Media

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We left on a Wednesday for Hawaii from LAX with the guys from DI since they were gonna play a couple gigs in Waikiki we tagged along with them out. The party had already started in the shuttle van to that airport as Casey Royer of DI began to put together a string of Michael Jackson jokes while a few cocktails were enjoyed. Our shuttle driver looked liked Louie Anderson's long lost brother was very cool about everything and joined in the fun for the hour long ride to the airport. Once at the airport we went through the gauntlet of new security measures and we were thrown through secondary screening.

After a few more cocktails at the airport lounge we boarded the plane. The plane ride was a total riot with both Casey and Jay ordering 4 drinks at a time. The volume on the plane got real loud and plenty of people were getting pissed off. All we can say is that we were glad that we did not get arrested for all the high jinx.

After a 5 hour flight were were in Hawaii and still not under arrest, so things were going good. It was close to midnight when we landed and we were greeted curbside by the show's promoter Jason Miller and his wife Marina. They took us straight to their house which is in the central part of the island of Oahu. Everyone was beat from the plane ride so we all crashed out. The photo you see at the right is the great view we woke up to.
Our plan was to go hook up with Gary Owens, proprietor of Royal Hawaiian Pool Service for the time we were there to go skate some spots while the DI guys went surfing. Since Gary cruised out to the central part of the island to pick us up we went down the road to skate our first park, Milani Skatepark.
The concrete is smooth and has a street and banks for whatever fun you can think up as well as a almost full bowl and an open capsule. We were kinda trippin on the design and asked Gary what was up. He pointed out that there are no drains and that the park is on a slight angle so that no water will not stand if it rains. We noticed that when we tried to hit the half capsule at full speed, your momentum got killed a bit with the incline. The almost full square bowl would have been funner in the channel was not in it so that you could pump the hell out of the corners for max speed grinds. All in all it was a fun place to roll and get warmed up and get our Hawaii vibe on.
On our way south down to Honolulu, Gary wanted to stop in Pearl City to see how the skatepark that they just broke ground on was coming. The Manana skatepark we found had it's entrance up and they were just laying the coping out to cut it and make some adjustments. The coping was beefy and not this little pinner stuff that you typically see in parks. We were estimating that the bowl sections may be 7 feet deep (with any luck) and a spine to separate the two bowls. Again, this park was on a slight incline with the bowls that would be the high point and a drain in the street section. This may make it hard to generate enough speed for the bowls, yet we will just have to see how it will all work once the park is done. Overall the park looks like it will be another fun spot to skate and from the sign out front that said that it was part of a 1.8 million dollar development project it better.

Still heading south, Gary wanted to go check out something a friend had told him about. When we rolled up to this pool from the street in looked interesting. We called this one the Disappoint Bowl because when we got closer it was only a 2-3 foot baby pool. Gary said hell with it and left some marks.

After grubbing at a local Subway we headed off to a pool that Gary had been riding for a little while now. It was not a bad square at all and reminded us a little of the "Pink Square", yet did not have a nice shallow end like that one.
The pool had a bit of rain water in it to bail and in not time we were riding. We noticed that they had put up demolition tarps so we knew that the place was gonna be over soon. No problems with neighbors, we got our biz handled and split.

As the sun started to set we headed out on the road along the ocean to take in the sunset and chill out a bit. The photo you see here is the view looking at Diamond Head. The place was a nice view no matter what direction you were looking.
The plan was to head over to a house in the area that was gonna host Deathbox skater, Mark Partain's 40th birthday party. On the way Gary kept pointing out pools all over the place and wanted to go check on a pool before we go to the party. The house has a sick kidney with renters in it that he has been waiting for them to move out. Their stuff was packed, just not leaving the property.

Firmly in place over at the birthday party, and endless supply of beers were on hand as loads of siskabob was prepared for grillin. People were all over the place that came out to celebrate Mark's 40th. With all the food finished off it was time to serve up some birthday cake and the blowing out of lots of candles.

By 2am the beers were getting thin and we decided to call it a night.

Waking up the next day was painful and we were still rocked from the night before. Moving slowly the plan was to go hook up with everyone at the Kamiloiki skatepark in Hallii Kai. On the ride out we saw some the hugest waves that were from a 15 year swell. The waves over by Sandy Beach on the east side of Ohau were like 30 feet high! It was rad to see waves this big pound the beach, nothing like the small waves here on the mainland.
Winding our way through the mountains we finally arrive at the Kamiloki skatepark. In typical Hawaii skatepark fashion this place too was on an incline with no drain. The place was pretty open, yet the funny thing about the place was that the 3 bowls were all pretty much the same, except one had a spine to it. In spite of that the park was still a very fun ride and locals say it is the best public park going.
Not long after we started to ride the rest of the gang from the party showed up and we threw down a pretty good session. Gary told the group that the pool he had been riding was scheduled to be demo'd real soon. Since the place was gonna be over he did not care about blowing it out and suggested that everyone split this park and go finish off the pool. Everyone packed it up and left for new terrain and some cold ones.
The pool sess got hot real fast with Mark Partain executing a frontside roll in to the corner with a ripper known all over the island, Kale following not far behind. It soon tuned into the Mark and Kale show as the two kept going at it all afternoon, Deathbox, corners, walls, it all got hit.
All the beers were gone and the sun was setting so everyone cleaned up their stuff and left to embark on a night of Punk Rock.

Part of our overall trip to Hawaii was to go see DI play Friday and Saturday night in the Chinatown section of Waikiki. The place was called Club Pauahi where promoter and Punk himself, Jason Miller has been putting on shows. Just the week before we were there they had TSOL play at the same club, so for the Punks in Hawaii got 2 weekends of over the top shows.


The Enhancements

 The show got off to a great start with a local band, The Enhancements. We mingled around the club as the guys that we spent the day skating with began to show up. The energy in the place was very high as everyone celebrated in being Friday as well as a good show going down.


Side Kick
Another band that came over from southern California was Side Kick. We have heard of them playing around here on the mainland, yet had never seen them play. The certainly are a group of very talented guys whose sound was tight the entire set. They sound like a band that you would hear on the Warped Tour with a dose of old school Punk mixed in.
Tonight's performance marks the first time in DI's long history that they would be finally playing in Hawaii. The Punks on hand for the show were super stoked to finally be able to put a live performance to the records that many had been listening to for years. DI floored the place performing all the classics from the Horse Bites Dog Cries record. The scene was like something you would have experienced back in 1984 at Cathay de Grande with bottles flying and the entire crowd slamming the entire floor.

During the show Casey threw out plenty of his one liners as well as plenty of hilarious Michael Jackson jokes and commentary. One thing that can be said about the scene in Hawaii is that they are no lightweights, they are hardcore and thrashed around the whole show. Hawaii Punks RULE! - great scene!

After the show headed over with DI to a local bar that most of the Punks go after a show called The Hideaway. When we got there it was almost 2am and they were closing so we wound up at a really lame karaoke bar that was serving till 4am - in hind sight we should have just went home instead of staying there listening to wanabe stars.

We got out of bed about noon and went down the road. Our first stop was Lazy Bones skate shop to get a bearing tune up and put some new wheels on Gary's deck. This is a really cool shop that carries everything you could ever need. They even have a pretty cool collection of old school decks and trinkets.

Today's mid day meal took place at Christian Hosoi's favorite place which is the Rainbow Drive In. The food at this place was soooo good and the portions were huge for about 5 bucks. Now that we were all lunched up we went to go hook up with Kale and Louie. The plan was to go session the skatepark at Hickam Air Force Base.
This was a park that we had been wanting to hit ever since I first saw pictures of it on the internet years ago. To get on the base you had to have a sponsor with a military or some sort of official okeydoke and our riding bro Louie had the access. The entire park is under an old airplane hangar which keeps the sun from beating you to death and the skating still happening if it rains.
The 2 bowls they had there were a ton of fun to skate. The bowl that is closest to the front was very big and had a curved section that had pool coping on it that barked when your trucks hit it. The bowl on the other side of the hangar was like a smaller version of the one at the Encinitas YMCA. The deep end is 8 1/2 feet deep and is a great ride.
We rode the place for close to 4 hours and once everyone was toast we packed up and went home to shower and get ready for night 2 of DI at Club Pauahi.

Arriving at the club about 10 o'clock we still were there in plenty of time to see Side Kick and DI, as well as have a few more drinks. Tonight's show was brought out to the front room of the club since the sound system in the other room had problems. Rather than delay the show it was moved to the front.

The place went off just as hard as it did the night before with drinks flying in the air and everyone having a great time. The show got over later than the night before, so going to The Hideaway was out of the question and we went to The Wave since they were serving till 4am yet kicked everyone out at 3:30am. The next day were were not up too early and the plan today was to ride the hell out of the square since it's clock was ticking.
It was decided that the coping would get torn up to make the shallow end pocket a little more open to some action.

Everyone took their final run on her, knowing that this may be the last time they see her alive since a dozer was scheduled to come the next week. The crew on hand pushed it a bit harder than they did on Friday. Kale doing some gnarly one wheelers over the light was certainly the rage at this final session.
Before we left everyone paid their respects to the pool, thanking her for the fun times and for not hurting them too bad. As we drove away all we could do was talk about how another pool would be uncovered to take her place. Within about an hour of the time we needed to split to go to the airport we were still looking in backyards for more pools.

We made a run by the Jungle Bowl which every Thanksgiving the locals barge while the owners are away on holiday. This nice kidney was ready for the Royal Hawaiian Pool Service to perform it's annual inspection. The tranny by the steps was so perfect that we could image the fun that they were gonna have - literally perfect.

It was now 8pm and time for us to get to the airport for our return flight. We certainly learned some new tactics from Gary who has skate half the pools on the island and has a true gift for sniffing out new pools and situations that lead to new pools to skate. This was a really fun trip and we have to thank Gary Owens and the entire Royal Hawaiian Pool Service crew for the good times and the parties. Thanks to Jason and Marina Miller, the promoters of the show at Club Pauahi - great job on the shows an for providing an outlet for one of the best Punk scenes around to flourish. We certainly look forward retuning the favor when you guys come to the mainland.

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