Welcome back to the show. And a huge thanks to everybody who made a donation to our efforts in the month of April.

We announced the winner of the custom-built Timponi Surf Board on Instagram.

Shane O'Connor is the gents name.

He's been a longtime supporter.

And I've actually already put him in contact with the Timponies, so they are getting him dialed in.

And I'll be sure to get photos of that board once Shane receives it and then post it on Instagram at Surf Splendor if you want to follow along there and see what we've got going

today's podcast is with Kauai Council member Luke Elin. If you've been listening to this podcast with any

regularity, you'll know that we are in the middle of a series of episodes centered on the island of

Kauai. In the recent weeks, I've interviewed Hawaii natives, board builders, professional surfers,

transplants, landowners who are stewarding land that they inherited

from generations of family before them, newer landowners who figured out a way to acquire some of the

most expensive real estate in the U.S., and today's guest actually adds a lot to those conversations.

Luke Eveslin was born and raised on Kauai.

Before being voted in as a civil servant 20 months ago, Luke co-founded Kamanu Composits with his

partners Kayso Gates and Kelly Foster. Kamano builds high-performance single-person canoes and a consensus believes that they

are actually the world's fastest canoes. Kamano manufactures locally and sustainably. In today's

conversation, Luke talks about the challenges of running a composites manufacturing business in

Hawaii. He talks about how he's addressing some of the top

priority issues through City Hall, issues like housing and climate change, and he shares the

harrowing near-death experience he had at sea that permanently altered his life's perspective

and launched his life as a civil servant.

Spoiler alert, he was nearly cut in half by a boat's propeller.

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