Kimo: A Collection of Short Stories

by Kimo Hollinger

Kimo is a classic. When I first arrived in Hawaii in the fall of 1958, Chubby Michell introduced me to Kimo and Paul Gebauer. I fondly remember driving to Makaha or the North Shore with Kimo and Paul doing their pigeon takeoff on Kippi and Angust of Makaha; what a laugh a minute those two were. Kimo hates crowds in the lineup. On October 11, 1976, Sunset was breaking the best ever, and it was quite crowded at the lineup. Kimo decided to go way out to Backyards. Eddie Aikau and I saw him get an unbelievable ride all the way through to the lineup inside, so we followed him back out. That was without a doubt the best surf we ever had, and Kimo was our leader. He has a great wit and low key way of expressing himself and it comes off so well in his writing. I laugh every time I think of Kimo. The other day he called me and was going off on how much the surf contests and "the Surfer Girl" film shoot were excluding the public from surfing Alii Beach in Haleiwa, his current favorite spot. The over commercialization of surfing drives all of us nuts, but to Kimo it is totally unbearable. After a long tirade, he ended out conversation by saying, "Jose Angel is looking down and laughing at us." Peter Cole

100 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short collection of short biographical stories by an Oahu man told from ~ 65 year old vantage point. His life is mostly surfing, his refuge, but he's also a fire fighter paramedic. Oahu sounds like an idyllic place, full of beauty, adventure, and honest people.