At eight years old, R. Kikuo Johnson read his first comic book from Compleat Comics, a bygone of old Wailuku. After completing his first book, Johnson can’t recall a time he wasn’t consuming comics, other than when he was illustrating his own.
Kai Lenny, a born and raised Maui surfer, grew up watching his idols tackle waves thought impossible at Peʻahi. He channels this mindset and draws from his multidisciplinary background to take big-wave surfing to new heights. One of his more recent accomplishments is one that can be enjoyed lying on the couch. Lenny, who struggles to stay out of the water, has compiled epic stories and action shots from some of the world’s elite big-wave surfers, including himself, in an aptly titled book, “Big Wave Surfer: The Greatest Rides of Our Lives.”
The fine art painter Jennifer Valenzuela works in a distinctive style that explores the energy of nature and her imagination. Intertwining philosophy and wisdom in her work, Valenzuela calls her style of painting, “imagined landscapes.”
With the ongoing pattern of Hawaiʻi’s wildlife disappearing, Che Frausto is motivated to increase education about native species and their critical habitats. With a line of educational coloring books that feature endangered animals in Hawaiʻi and important facts, Frausto started Advanced Wildlife Education.
A visit to Maui can be more than a couple of weeks on the beach—it can mean genuinely connecting with the culture and the land.