Based on the very tres chic Breton shirt from 19th Century France – the parallel lines of the Windward Stripe Tee suggest ocean swells lined up and moving toward shore. The Windward Stripe Tee is made of 100% cotton, ring spun jersey and comes in fiery Red Ginger or Horizon Blue. 

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If they were as big as their name, they’d be duck soup to catch. But actually, the humuhumunukunukuapuaa is no bigger than a minute. This is the little fishy whose name almost every visitor to Hawaii is able to pronounce, before going home.

The humuhumunukunukuapuaa is a little trigger fish and has an unusual pattern of blue, yellow and greenish-black bars and stripes all over. It is a common site to see throughout Polynesian waters. It’s so hard to catch because of it’s small mouth. the Hawaiians and other natives of the Islands find that the most successful way to land Mr. Humu in the chowder is to watch for him carefully among the rocks and scoop him up with a net when he attempts to flee. 

Design by Stanley Stubenberg

I might forget the surf at Waikiki—-

I think I never shall and yet I might.

I might forget the golden hula-moons

And music pulsing in the tropic night.

I think I shan’t forget Hawaiian skies

Nor Island mountains nor the jungle’s musk.

But this I know, I never shall forget

The fragrance of Plumeria in the dusk. 

From the book “In an old Hawaiian Garden” Pictures by T.J. Mundorff and Word Pictures by Don Blanding. 

The Makaha International Surfing Championships was truly international by 1959, as surfers from Australia, Peru and everywhere were invited to compete in the heavies at Makaha Point surf. This photo was taken by Clarence “Mac” Maki who served as contest director of the Makaha event from 1959 – 1961. The photo is kind of an odd choice, as it shows a surfer going left when Makaha is definitely a right-breaking point wave. But this photo was also somewhat prophetic, as the winner of the 1959 event was Buffalo Keaualana, a goofy foot who used switching stance to make it through the early heats, then beat former champions George Downing and Wally Froiseth to win the fifth running of the event. Buffalo received a waterproof watch and a plaque which he most likely cherishes to this day, as winning the Makaha event was the biggest of deals in the Hawaiian Islands at the end of the 1950s.

The Makaha International Surfing Championships invited the world’s best surfers, paddlers and watermen to the west side of Oahu for a winter contest - every year from 1953 to 1971. Surfers from Hawaii, California, Australia, Peru and around the world competed in heats of anywhere from six to 24 surfers - all of them wearing numbered jerseys. The surfers could wear any trunks they wanted, but a majority of them took the chance to visit M Nii for some custom trunks - to help the judges ID them, and to perform better in the surf. The Makaha Drowner is built in 2 ply 100% cotton ring spun compact twill. The subtle curve of the side seam, the shape of the back pocket, the button-fly construction, all true to the original.

We’ve washed and finished this short to create a subtle sea-worn effect, restoring the Makaha Drowner to a badge of honor - and added a patch from the most prestigious surf contest out of the 1950s and into the 1960s.

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Grand Prix start for the Makaha surf contest – or maybe this was a paddling race? This is the mid-1960s from the look of those boards – which are now worth thousands and even tens of thousands to collectors in the 21st Century. In 1966, Finney and Houston’s Surfing: A History of the Ancient and Hawaiian Sport explained the format of the contest: “Contestants compete in four divisions: Senior Men, Junior Men (seventeen years and under), Women and Mixed Tandem. Entries may total 150 surfers or more, with several heats in each division. Because the heats in each event last and hour, the contest is one of stamina and paddling speed as well as riding ability. The winner is the one who can paddle fast, catch the most waves, handle them well, and ride them past the inside buoy.”

Photo: Tom Keck

“Where the tropic tradewinds caress the coco palms…and the sweet Aloha calls me to your arms…” That’s how one of our favorite Hawaiian songs begins. Coco palms, Cuban palms, date palms, royal palms…palms palms palms. There are nearly a hundred kinds of them in Hawaii, and they all play their romantic parts well, whether they be in song, in the range of your camera, or nearby for you to see and touch. Honeymooners see them as part of the tropical and lovey dovey setting of their happiest days: other visitors get a thrill out of seeing Island boys, clad in bright swimming trunks, scamper to the top of the tallest ones in a matter of minutes: some love the trees for their horticultural selves…but not too many, methinks.

Design by Stanley Stubenberg

Pareo has roots in deepest Polynesia, the word originally meaning a wraparound skirt worn by women in the Cook Islands and Tahiti. The original print was flowers – especially hibiscus – but also geometric tapa prints.  As the pareo spread through Polynesia and the South Pacific, by the time the fashion got to Hawaii pareo came to mean any wraparound skirt worn by men or women – and also the various, colorful prints of animals, tropical scenes and geometric patterns.

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