Rad Not Sad

Dropped off some “Kapolioka’ehukai” vinyl this morning for Crystal, she’s got a Moloka’i adventure ahead of her, paddling from Halawa to Mo’omomi with 2 other women. Jeff Johnson was at the house, and he shared some screengrabs with me from Yvon Chouinard’s 1968 film Mountain of Storms.

Mountain of Storms documents “three men who set off from California in an old van to surf, ski and climb their way down to the southern end of Argentina.” Sounds pretty sick right? It was Jeff’s inspiration for 180 South.

Jeff also shared a story about some local guy spearfishing off Sunset, who overheard him mention he worked for Patagonia. The local guy yelled, “Eh, you work for Patagonia!?” and started paddling towards him. Instead of dishing cracks, the guy shook Jeff’s hand and said, “Tell your boss thanks.”

A generous gift from Chouinard enabled the purchase of the Halawa lo’i by the Trust for Public Land in 1998, protecting it from future development. It was sparked by the passing of Yvon’s friend Rell Sunn, who accompanied Chouinard and his wife to Halawa to show them the lo’i. It is Rell’s canoe that Crystal will be paddling.