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Published: Jun 25, 2010
Hawaii is 5,000 miles away. On a muggy summer night, the Lower East Side feels just as distant. But the party for the paperback edition of "Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing" [To buy the book from Amazon, click here [3]. For the Kindle version, click here [4]] featured not only a rare New York appearance by its author, my friend Stuart Coleman, but a performance by authentic hula dancers. With the bartender pushing fruity drinks and surf movies in the background, distance vanished, and it was almost possible to believe we were in the vicinity of Makaha, an area on Oahu’s wild western coast where the surf and the people are generally considered too wild for tourists. In his book, Coleman profiles some of the area’s greatest cult figures --- and their very appealing subculture. If Buffalo Keaulana, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and Sistah Rell aren’t even “Jeopardy” answers for you, you may want to do your remedial Hawaiian reading here.