When I was in Kauai, Hawaii last month I took this photo of a store in Hanalei that had a Buzzy’s look about it. The store was located as you head towards the north shore of Kauai “in a land called Hanalei.” Although there is some disagreement by the songs’ authors, Hanalei is supposedly the place where Puff the Magic Dragon lived click here, scroll down.
As we drove thru Hanalei to the surfing site called Tunnels located at the end of the road, Pam and I saw several signs in residents’ front yards dedicated to surfing legend Andy Irons who was from that area. Andy died of a drug overdose in November 2010 click here and was something of a hometown hero in Kauai’s north shore community.
My daughter Ryan told me that Andy was very popular among the surfing crowd because he was viewed as the “bad boy” compared to Kelly Slater who was seen as the golden boy of surfers. It was nice to see how much his Kauai north shore neighbors thought of him with their many signs of love and support.
Tunnels is also the surfing site where a young surfer named Bethany Hamilton lost her arm to a shark attack in 2003. Bethany has since overcome the attack and is now regarded as one of he top surfers in the world. Her story is being told in a movie titled “Soul Surfer” due out next month click here for more info.