TRADES releases a drop for the keiki (but never drops a keiki). We remix our hauʻoli face design for your favorite hanabada nose kids. Made for keiki that prefer poi over Gerber's, to keiki that start to give you attitude and catch TheBus to the beach.
"HO SUP AUNTY" and "HO SUP UNKO" heather gray and black tees (2T, 4T, 6T, YS, YM, YL) and heather gray and navy onesies (6M, 12M) are now available at tradeshawaii.com.
]]>Jordan Gomez wanted to hang up his jiu-jitsu gi for good. Despite submitting seven of his eight opponents, placing second in his division and first in the open weight division at the 2012 Polynesian International tournament, the 27-year-old Kauaʻi product was growing unenthusiastic about the grappling art. But now, with the help of Professor Aldo Caveirinha Januario and Caveirinha Jiu-Jitsu Family (CJJF), the black belt featherweight is hungrier than ever to make a name for himself.
As a young teen, Gomez was harassed and picked on because of his scrawny shape and shy personality, which accounted for his low outlook on life. In his senior year of high school, Gomez took his first step onto a jiu-jitsu mat and in less than a minute was tapped out via arm bar performed by a much younger boy. Nevertheless, he was hooked. The martial art, sometimes referred to as arte suave (the gentle art), relies not on size and strength, but on technique and leverage, which was perfect for him. Since then, jiu jitsu has played an immense role in transforming his confidence while also instilling humility.
“You can’t get big headed about it,” says Gomez of his progression. “You get choked out on the mat every single day. You have to leave your ego at the door and there’s no pride in jiu-jitsu. You can’t come to the school thinking you’re gonna beat on everyone—it’s just not the way it goes.”
In 2008, when everyone was on the MMA (mixed martial arts) bandwagon, Gomez took the plunge into the popular sport and moved to Los Angeles. After a year of missing home and not focusing purely on jiu-jitsu, he left the City of Angels and relocated to Honolulu where he set up his own gym. It just so happened that his gym was the same location as his house garage. While there were no required gym fees and he was able to train with his friends everyday, the space lacked guidance and consistent motivation.
Still, the talent was there and he entered in the Polynesian International tournament. One of the referees, Professor Caveirinha, noticed Gomez’s performance and invited him to a seminar at his gym in Kaka‘ako.
“[Caveirinha] came up to me after the tournament and told me he saw a lot of potential,” says Gomez, “but I needed a teacher to push myself. That was probably the changing point and I’d have to say that he definitely saved my jiu-jitsu because I was kind of getting discouraged and over it for a little while when I was a purple belt.”
Caveirinha, a fourth degree black belt, brought him into his class and Gomez never left, eventually helping Caveirniha with instructing students. He believes Gomez is the next big thing in jiu-jitsu to come out of Hawaiʻi.
“I believe he is number one in Hawaiʻi now,” says Caveirinha, “but I told him, if he gets a gold medal in Brazil and California, for sure people from all over the world will respect him of his jiu-jitsu and his style.”
This May, Gomez will be competing in the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Long Beach, California to do just that. The only competitors allowed to enter the same tournament that put BJ Penn on the map in 2000 as the first non-Brazilian gold medalist, have medaled in international tournaments or accumulated 50 points. Gomez placed third in the 2014 Asian International Open in Japan, automatically qualifying him for Worlds.
Jiu-jitsu has molded Gomez into a confident, but humble man--its given him a purpose in life. At some point after he earns degrees on his belt and builds a stronger résumé, he wants to open a jiu-jitsu gym under his name and give back to the art/sport that continuously gives him so much. Whether on Oʻahu or Kauaʻi, he's hopeful the gym will not be in his garage.
*Words by Aoloa Patao
Photography by Jake Ho
Racing against the sun, Jake (co-founder of TRADES) and I are late to pick up Easten James, better known by his 64.5K followers on Instagram as @Clownin808, from Mai Tai’s. Our plan is to snag him, interview and snap a cheesy sunset photo (note: photo above) of him at Ala Moana Beach Park and return him to the bar before he loses his buzz. We finally make it to the mall parking lot and he jumps into my car and greets us with a signature “Sepppp you fehkas?!"
The 28-year-old Makaha native blew up on Instagram mostly as a result of his early followers tagging their aunty's sistah's bradah, and so forth, to watch his hilarious 15-second Disney movie and infomercial voiceover videos. The videos feature well-known characters such as Simba and Pumbaa from The Lion King, Cruela de Vil from 101 Dalmatians and infomercial star, Anthony Sullivan, speaking in a top-notch language specific to Hawai‘i. Initially, James created the Clownin808 Instagram account solely to prevent the content he posted on his personal account making its way to his boss’s feed.
Cruella always comes over all blind around dinna time. #hawaii #voiceover #420 #sapufakas #munchies A video posted by Easten (@clownin808) on
The Amazing new Sticky Buddy! #Hawaii #clownin808 #bango #handodat #grannyispumped A video posted by Easten (@clownin808) on
“My manager followed me from work,” says James. “I was always posting any kine, stupid ass videos, so I kind of used [Clowin808] for an outlet, and then that thing just went through the roof.”
I remember a friend asking if I watched the Clownin808 video he tagged me in on Instagram. It was the first time I had heard of that handle. No, I didn’t watch another shitty video you tagged me in was my first reaction, but I politely refrained, “No.” He assured me that I wouldn’t be disappointed.
The video is a Pidgin rendition of a scene from the 1964 stop-motion animation, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In the scene, Rudolf’s fake nose falls off and his true red nose is revealed to two other reindeer. A timeless character's voice transformed into Pidgin was too funny and brilliant not to double tap.
Everybody was TRIPPEN when Rudolph's fake nose came off earlier tonight. #rudolph #rednose #busted #zippet #unkokalai #merrychristmas #hawaii A video posted by Easten (@clownin808) on
Clownin808 credits the characters for carrying the workload and thinks of himself simply as the voice behind them. To a certain degree that’s true, but it’s much more complex. First, he finds an attractive scene within a movie, infomercial or commercial that has the potential to make a smash—typically, a scene involving two or more characters to use multiple voices. Next, he watches the lips of characters and carefully replaces their speech with entertaining Pidgin content. The trick is making the characters’s new dialogue match their lips and tone to coordinate with their facial expression to convince his audience as if the characters were fluent in Pidgin.
Since day one, James's target audience has been the local bradah and sistah. Whether it’s a 70-year-old tata or 16-year-old pimpled teenager, they’ll come up to him and say, “Eh, you’re Clownin808 yeah?!” While the experience has brought him emceeing opportunities, free clothing gear and drinks, and the occasional starstruck hottie, the importance of Clownin808 is to trigger laughter and help Pidgin flourish on a mainstream social media platform.
“The main goal is just to keep the language going, yeah,” says James. “Keep the Pidgin language alive...I’m not too selfish with making money off of it or anything. Of course, I wanna make some money, but that’s not the main goal. The main goal is to spread the word of the culture out there and keep ‘em laughing and get better at it.”
Clownin808 isn’t a chick posting selfies of her 99 percent body/one percent bikini accompanied by an inspirational caption. He’s not an amateur surf photographer aspiring to be the next Clark Little or Zak Noyle. He’s just a local bradah from Makaha making Pidgin voiceover videos who happens to have an audience of over 64,000. #bango
WORDS BY AOLOA PATAO
PHOTO BY JAKE HO
In 1976, the unproven Hōkūleʻa had many doubters. The double-hulled voyaging canoe contained no motor and the navigators would attempt to sail from Hawaii to Tahiti using only non-modern techniques believed to be used by their ancestors. When Hōkūleʻa reached Tahiti and returned safely to Hawaii, the doubters were silenced, and a renaissance for the Hawaiian and Polynesian culture was born--Austin Kino is a product of that renaissance.
Kino is part of the next generation of voyagers, being trained to takeover the responsibility from the founding members, and uphold the legacy of the Hōkūleʻa. Kino and crew, were handpicked by Nainoa Thompson to sail on the first leg of the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, from Hilo to Tahiti. Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia, the sister canoe of Hōkūleʻa, are currently en route to Tahiti, but I caught up with him before he set sail to talk about his experiences with Hawaii’s canoes thus far.
Jake Ho: What has been your best experience with Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia?
Austin Kino: Probably just meeting all these older guys. Like the OG guys... I mean I knew Bruce [Blankenfield] and Nainoa [Thompson], because they train with us, but the rest of the guys are outer island and you just see them and they’re intense... They’ve been completely supportive and they’re the guys that get the least amount of press, and when they started, there was no Google, there was not all these people like, “Yeah! You can do it!” Majority of the people were expecting it to fail and almost wanted it to fail because it was something that was Hawaiian, and they still did it anyway and made it their life’s work, and now they give it to us. Have you had any bad experiences with Hōkūleʻa or learning experiences?
I think only a couple times we’ve had bad things happen where people weren’t in it for the right reason. They were trying to get on legs and try to be really competitive, and thats not what it is. I think the reason why [my crew] all stayed here for so long is because we’ve all became pretty close friends. If it wasn’t this, we’d all be doing something else together. It really has to be like that. There is a lot of emotion involved. There is a lot of competition involved.There are only so many slots and not everyone can go and the people that I’ve learned the most from, to be honest, is a whole group of guys and girls that are in their late 20’s early 30’s, that was us or were the next generation, but for whatever reason they’ve become leaders in their own right and butt heads with the older leadership. These are the people that when we didn’t know anything they took us under their wing and showed us, and now when they call crew those guys didn’t get called, for whatever reason. How I learned the most about the canoe is from seeing how they dealt with that. Instead of being like, “I showed these guys, they were nothing,” and being pissed, they love the canoe so much that they’ll be like “you know what, I’m stoked you get to go and I know I’ll have my time,” and I don’t think I could do that. If I gave the last 10 years of my life, and to hire some kid who just been coming down--that’s what got me to understand what it really looks like to love the canoe, because it is not about yourself. Its about what we’re sailing.
What led you to this point?
I first heard about it in high school and I saw it in a Hana Hou ad. I just saw people paddling with Nainoa and Bruce on one man [canoes] and learning about the stars and I wanted to do it so bad. One, because I grew up knowing those guys through my mom, but also we’ve all heard that story since we were how old, but I never pushed myself in any other aspect of being a water person, but I thought this would be my thing. So I went, stayed with it and I still trip out because people, at first you get to meet them and study at his house. A lot of the other kids already knew him. They weren’t over it but I was like, “Are you guys freaking out? We just learned navigation from...” and they were like, “Calm down, it’s just Uncle Nainoa,” and I was always freaking out, I couldn’t believe it.
What is the mission for Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage?
The mission for Mālama Honua is to train the next generation of captains and navigators. Basically, to find the new pool of leadership that will keep the canoe sailing. When we took her out of dry dock, she had sailed for 50 years, and the goal with how much time we’ve put into this, is to keep it sailing for another 50 years. I think these guys realize, and they’ll never say it publicly and they admit it, that this canoe will outlive them and it’s part of their responsibility and legacy, and they can’t really relax and move on until they feel like it’s going to keep sailing, and that used to overwhelm me.
These guys would look me dead in the eye and ask me, “I’ve invested all this time in you, are you going to keep the canoe sailing?” For me when we were drinking awa and we were having these binding contracts, I don’t think I even realized what we were doing. You’re just saying yeah I’m here in the moment, but when they say it like this is why we’re sailing. It’s really a promise.How long is your sail plan?
The Tahiti sail plan is for 22 days. The whole thing is a little over three years, 32 legs, 48 different countries.
What are you most excited about the voyage?
I’m mostly excited about testing myself. It’s really easy to hide in as a crew member, but to actually test my navigation, there is no hiding... You can do all the interviews in the world, smile, and get leis, to be a crew member and live up to what that means on the surface--but I’m excited and nervous and anxious at the same time to be tested to see what we actually learned; if we’ll be able to do it.What does Hōkūleʻa mean to you?
It means a change for big, big shifts. Before they first set sail to after they found Tahiti, there was a big shift in Hawaii alone. For cultural identity and cultural pride, and it opened up cultural renaissance, to education, to language, to connecting cultures. The effects are still filling in from what that first sail did. So what that canoe is to me is any hopes and dreams that you have, in the Pacific or for yourself can be carried on it.
Google has this term, moonshot. When Hawaiians first set sail and tried to find an island this big, that was a moonshot. They left for something they had no idea about. I still don’t think we know everything that they did. We just started.
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Follow Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia on the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage on Instagram at @hokuleawwv and on their website at hokulea.com.
INTERVIEW/PHOTO Jake Ho
EDITOR Aoloa Patao
The brothers of New Kingston talking with us about getting off the streets, their opinion on the Hawaii reggae scene, and what to expect from them next. Big ups to Rudeboy Reggae for making this happen.
By Taylor Ho
]]>It’s a blazing hot summer day in Kaimuki – one of those days where you’d rather be lounging at a beach instead of being cooped up.
The door to the 27-year-old Matt Bruening’s studio is wide open, as are the windows, allowing the breeze to come in unimpeded. The little fan on his desk is working hard to keep the room at a tolerable temperature. The air conditioning unit is off. Bruening doesn’t want an expensive electric bill. Totally understandable.
He shares the studio with a photographer, but she's not here today. In fact, she's hardly here. Her half of the studio is mostly used for storage. There are crates filled with miscellaneous stuff in one corner. There are picture frames on the ground and various props used for photoshoots scattered throughout her side. She should be out soon, Bruening tells me. At that point, he will have the studio all to himself. For now, half a room will suffice.
Bruening is a one man show here. He creates each piece from scratch – conceptualizing and designing the pattern and sewing everything together. This operation doesn’t allow Bruening to mass-produce a line, but that’s okay with him. Each piece is special ordered by customers. You get a personal touch with each item that you don’t get from mass-produced garments.
“Eventually I’ll get manufacturers,” declares Bruening.
For now, exclusivity seems to be working out for him. A majority of his clientele order custom pieces. He’s in his studio today working on two orders. There’s a mannequin near the door modeling one of the pieces he is working on today. It’s a blue silk dress with some brown, orange and white circles on it for a client who wants it for a wedding. “I might add some belt loops here so she has the option of using a belt with it” says Bruening as he hikes the waist of the dress up a little to show me the exact place the belt loops will go. “I don’t think I’ll have time though.” The other item he is working on is a kimono cover up – one of his most popular items.
“I have ladies that are like 50-something that want something and then I have girls who are 18, 17 that want something,” says Bruening. “This last week I had the one offs of all the kimonos and it sold within hours.
“That’s the thing too,” adds Bruening. “People want it because it’s exclusive. If I eventually get manufacturing are people still going to want my shit? They like it now because nobody else has it.”
The Westside of Oahu can be a daunting place for visitors. Despite the area's natural beauty, characterized by the picturesque Yokohama Bay and the stunning Waianae Range, the residents are usually stereotyped as hostile and aggressive – especially toward outsiders. But Bruening can’t imagine growing up anywhere else. To him, Makaha will always be home.
“Growing up Westside, I remember just being free,” says Bruening. “I just thank God that we have a big family. Most of our family lives out that side so we were never bored.”
Bruening, who grew up in a single-parent home with his mom raising him and his three older siblings, admits that she was a bit overprotective.
“My friends could come over and sleep over anytime,” he says. “But we couldn’t even go to our friend’s house that lived like…seven houses away from me. My mom just wouldn’t let us sleep over. Her mind just used to wander.
“But to be honest, my friend them got into a lot of drugs, whatever, they have kids,” Bruening adds. “Had my mom just been like that you know, more lenient, it would have been different.”
Although Bruening’s parents split up when he was young, he still maintained a solid relationship with his father. His dad made it a point to be as involved in Bruening’s life as possible despite being incarcerated for five years.
“We never knew as kids what the fuck he was doing,” Bruening says. “I was wondering how come he has all this money? How come we can fly to Maui every weekend? But I never questioned it.
“For that five years, I think I grew up a lot too,” says Bruening. “I was about nine when he went to jail. By the time he got out of jail I was like 14, 15. We used to see him every so often while he was in there. I thought about this recently and I was like, 'I wonder if this affected my life in anyway?' And it didn’t.”
Prior to focusing solely on his burgeoning fashion career, Bruening worked at Club Monaco, a high-end casual clothing retailer located in the Ala Moana Shopping Center.
“It was supposed to just be a temp job and I ended up getting promoted, promoted, promoted,” says Bruening. “My friend was the manager at the time and she said ‘do you want to just do back stock work?’ and I said yeah, I don’t want to be on the floor.”
What started out as something temporary turned into a full-time job. Bruening started in the stock room, ended up on the floor as a sales associate and eventually became a manager. About a year ago, Bruening was mulling over the decision of whether or not to leave his position at Club Monaco. He had just built a solid team and was certain that the store was on good footing. At the same time he was about to quit, he found out that the store was closing due to lease issues.
“I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do afterwards,” said Bruening. “I just really had to learn how to discipline myself. I was just used to waking up every day and getting ready for work. I think if that hadn’t happened, I’d be stuck. It sucks that it happened, but I’m happy that it did.”
With the decision to quit being made for him, Bruening was able to put all his time and effort into fashion design.
While at Club Monaco, Bruening was selected to audition for the eighth season of Lifetime's Project Runway - the American Idol for fashion designers. He had to fill out a 22-page application, create a brief three minute video about himself and submit photos of 10 garments. Not able to meet the deadline, Bruening called the producers of Project Runway and informed them that he didn't think he'd be able to get everything together in time, but thanked them for their interest anyway. To Bruening's surprise, the producers extended the deadline for him. So he eventually got everything together and sent it out.
"Honestly, I didn't even think they were going to call me back," says Bruening. "I just didn't give a shit at that point. The video sucked, I was so last minute. I submitted whatever photos I had."
In spite of Bruening's doubt, he was selected and had to fly to Seattle to meet with the casting agents the following week. Although Bruening was not chosen to appear on the show (fellow Hawaii designer Andy South made the cut and finished in third), he was glad that it didn't work out.
"I try to think about the success rate and being that vulnerable being on TV and everyone knows who you are," says Bruening. "I talked to some people who worked in New York. Some Project Runway guys applied for jobs because there's always openings for designers...and honestly they don't even get hired because they were on TV and they should be doing their own thing.
"Knowing the success rate a show can do for you was definitely something that I thought about. I'm nobody now, and I definitely don't want to be a nobody later," he adds.
Bruening gets back to work on the kimono cover up. He lays out the fabric on the table and places the pattern over it. Six wooden blocks are used to hold everything down. He begins cutting out the pattern, turns around and gets to work on his sewing machine. It’s a blazing hot summer day in Kaimuki – one of those days where you’d rather be lounging at a beach instead of being cooped up. But here Bruening is. Cooped up and getting work done. He wouldn't want it any other way.
WORDS: Ian Kai
PHOTO: Jake Ho
Like the two local boys that suited up in this year’s World Series, Stuart Kam’s dream was baseball in front of the big crowds and bright lights. He trained hard, excelled at Kamehameha High School, played at the University of San Diego and Oregon State University, then tried out for the majors. However, his major league dreams were derailed by a shoulder injury. His hopes of professional baseball were over, but when against the ropes, fighters swing back. He focused on his passions of mixed martial arts, surfing, and creating ATH Sports Nutrition.
ATH is an organic supplement company that focuses on the adventure sports lifestyle. ATH supporters include local professional athletes like surfers Ezekiel Lau and Keanu Asing, and MMA fighters Brad Tavares and Max Holloway. To Kam’s surprise, even BJ Penn’s old nemesis, Jens Pulver, gave his approval.
“I didn’t even know [Pulver] ordered product,” Kam recalls. “It wasn’t shipped to his name, and then Max [Holloway] actually met him at one of the UFC’s and they were telling Max about it. So, that was kind of cool.”While most supplements focus on gaining Schwarzenegger-like mass with artificial flavoring and fillers, there was nothing with organic ingredients that helped muscle recovery from high intensity workouts. Instead of settling for what was being sold on the shelves, Kam researched and then experimented in making recovery supplements to fuel his training.
“It was definitely born out of necessity,” says Kam. “I started mixing my own stuff in the garage and then I just started giving out product to other guys that I trained with and kind of went from there.”
“I saw this company as a way to help recovery and to help other guys train full-time,” said Kam.
As he continues to use ATH to support athletes, the supporters of ATH have been extremely loyal, as well.
“What motivates me is just to be able to train and help other guys with their recovery and just spread the brand and that warrior culture,” says Kam. “Just having something that a tribe of guys can get around and see that it’s authentic stuff for combat athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. That’s what keeps me going, is that you have a lot of followers and you don’t really want to let those guys down. And you want to keep producing good stuff for the guys that believe in you.”
Kam makes sure ATH products are of the highest quality for his supporters. He is always trying to make current products better. He also isn’t afraid to innovate new products, like the organic coconut flavored Hemp Gold protein.“Its a never ending process, you’re always improving it... I don’t think you ever stop improvising and improving your product,” Kam says. “I want to be able to do stuff that is different, and not just relabeling a product that someone already has.”
Recently recovering from surgery on his torn labrum, Kam continues to train, surf, and improve ATH Sports Nutrition. Never letting setbacks defeat him, Kam is always fighting back to achieve his dream of helping other athletes achieve theirs.
“You know it’s the person who fuckin tries and tries again and comes up short again, and if the company doesn’t work then I still consider it a success because I at least tried,” Kam says. “That’s all you can ask for. Just to fuckin try to do something.“
WORDS/PHOTO: Jake Ho
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