Town and Country

There are two ways to visit Hawaii in the winter and I have experienced both in great detail and celebrate them with much gusto. They are drastically different in style — one celebrating the finer things in life, squeezing out the beauty, culture, art, flora and fauna amid the plentiful distractions (tourists and hotels) while the other gives us a glimpse into our feral and most core surf instincts. This is true of all the islands, but the starkest contrast is the obvious: Honolulu and The North Shore. Town and Country. 

I bring this up because next week we have the pleasure of heading over to Hawaii with our pals at Reef who are celebrating the final month of their 40th anniversary, a celebration that’s strengthened the Everlasting Bonds they have with our entire surf culture. We know, because we documented it, interviewing an iconic list of surfers from the Reef family, past, present and future and commemorated it all with a collab slide you can get here. 

Now I’ll be honest, I was not thinking of Reef much before this year, they lived deep in my subconscious, mostly my ‘90s subconscious, but the deep dive into their past has made me pretty amped about their future — which includes Rose Machado (yep, dad is Rob), who is leading the charge on what the future of what “Miss Reef” might look like. Noah Beschen, Mason, Coco and Makoa Ho are grabbing the reins from Uncle Derek and Uncle Mike and steering us into the future of Hawaiian surfing. We’re going to celebrate all that next Friday the 13th with Reef at our favorite new hotel in Town: The Romer House Waikiki (which if you’re keen to come along are offering 20% off rooms for you, just type in the promo code Reef at checkout). Time to buy the ticket and take the ride.

Most of my previous journeys to Hawaii have been based on the North Shore of course, it being my annual trip to see what I’m made of — which the North Shore has a way of reminding you is, well, not much. Skin and bone shell around a lot of anxiety when the ocean roars. But the memories I have of those feral days on couches, balconies, scratching over waves that would surely kill you should you be inside 10 feet further,  running around covered in sand, kicking off slippers at every house, being respectful but never cowering or shy.

The North Shore reminds you how to be a surfer because regardless of talent, it takes you back to the beginning. The people command and demand and warrant respect, the waves command and demand and warrant respect too — hell the sand, the community, the bakery, the smoothie shop, they all deserve it. There’s no way around it, even if you think you can hide at Turtle Bay, you better keep some respect in your pocket because you never know when you’ll need it. And while this fact has always made Hawaii and the North Shore a bit of a polarizing place, I think it’s so great that it exists and operates that way. We all need to be humbled — it’s why we surf — and the North Shore is a place that puts that humility right where it needs to be: on your forehead. Which brings me to Town.

A place where on paper you can sit on your veranda and drink Mai Tais and never once come in contact with the aina and you might think you can squirt by, sloppily being a gross haole visitor, not showing Town the same respect, but that is a mistake and will leave you as fulfilled as lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.. Do that at your own peril. Because if you want to explore a place as vibrant and bustling as the Big Apple, with its own rich culture that is totally unique to the North Shore, peel back the layer a bit and experience Town with the likes of Kekoa Cazimero and the AVVA crew, The Moniz family, Carissa Moore, Ezekiel Lau, the Summer Street crew, etc. The ocean may be facing south, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less fruitful, you just have to know where to look. And don’t discount the rich surf history that lives beneath the tourist blanket in Waikiki either…

I’m excited for this trip next week because on paper it’s shaping up to be oriented in Town more than Country, but I’m pretty sure I’ll find a way to celebrate both. Hawaii knows how to lure you in. Which is a good reminder that Aloha means Hello and Goodbye. Click here for a glimpse into my weekend playlist from Cliff Kapono and Happy Pau Hana, see you next Friday, right? RSVP here. —Travis Ferré  

[Above photo: Derek Ho, Reef ad, circo 1987]