[Geary]

Born in late '48. I lived on Makiki Street, Mt. Tantulus, and walked about a mile and a half to and from Hana Hauole school from 1st grade on. My route took me over the Makiki Stream bridge, where at age 4 I had spotted a small shark that some fisherman had thrown into the dry stream bed. I told an old neighbor, the neighbor called the authorities, and the news story that ended up in the Honolulu Advertiser taught me from an early age to take anything you read in the newspaper with a grain of salt. (Theories on how the shark could have possibly swum 8 miles upstream .. the stream was barely running, for crying out loud.)

In later years, my friend and I would buddy up with our long surfboards, one carrying the two noses, the other carrying the tails, treking those 8 miles down to Waikiki. We'd often get a lift down from some kind soul, and usually a ride home from our parents, but not always. Eventually, we joined the Outrigger Canoe Club and got surfboard lockers. Taking the bus or hitchhiking was easier from then on. When I was 15, my Dad gave me his old Borgward station wagon, and independence was mine.

A friend who had grown up in front of Maalaea on Maui before moving to Oahu told me tales about the great waves at Honolua Bay, so during Christmas vacation of our sophomore year, we loaded our boards and sleeping bags into the Borgie, got a 2-week roundtrip ticket for our car on Young Brothers interisland barge, and had the surf adventure of our young lives. Seven years later, I moved to Maui where I spent most of the next 30 years, eventually starting Guard Transmission (which pretty much required moving to the U.S. Mainland). Seems like a former life ..