Boarding House Mentors

Water Safety
Boarding House Mentors

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 22 February, 2008 : - - Kanalu K38 instructors Tom Pohaku Stone and Pake Ah Mow volunteered for a Rescue Water Craft (RWC) awareness demonstration for the Boarding House Mentor organization and visiting as part of a Kanaluy K38 Hawaiian volunteer community service.

This program reviewed the RWC surf rescue techniques used for assisting swimmers, beachgoers and surfers in distress for recovery from life threatening situations back to safe shore. This was a cultural exchange for the students who were on a visitation tour, and were meeting up with notables of the Hawaiian surfing heritage, 'our legends of today', shaping the future of tomorrow with the Spirit of Aloha!

Josh Grisby on the trip:What a trip. I feel like I won a surfing game show and the prize was a ten day trip to Hawaii to surf and meet all the people you have ever wanted to meet in the surfing world. I will never forget Tom and Pake on the Jet Skis (Kanalu K38), Rabbit, all the big wave chargers at the Eddie, Brian taking us paddle surfing. More important to me though than meeting all these people was the Aloha they showed us.

I have never met Liam McNamara before but he gave us a board from his shop to use for free. The way Tom his wife and Pake took us in for a huge dinner like we where family. The way the guys at the Volcom house where really stoked to meet Floyd and Esteban. Brian introducing us to everyone in Makaha.

As a surfer you hear stories of the locals hassling the mainlanders and I am sure there some of them are true but let me tell you this. I feel more comfortable surfing here with the locals than my home break that I have been surfing for 25 years. Aloha is alive and well here in Hawaii and I am really going to try and remember that when I am stuck in traffic or having a bad day at work. To all my new friends here in Hawaii I say Mahalo and Aloha.

About Boarding House MentorsBoarding House Mentors Based in Los Angeles, California, United States. Our mission is simple: we introduce inner city youth to the exhilaration of surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding in order to broaden their life experience and create positive social change. Since our first season in 2003, BHM has passed the stoke (the pure joy) of board riding to over 2000 kids.

The ultimate goal of this trip to Hawai'i is to expose the kids to the contagious Aloha Spirit & Culture, which honor tradition, respect, sharing, and love. In turn, the kids will then carry back that spirit to their own communities.
www.boardinghousementors.org