Healing through surfing on Maui
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Today on “Post Reports,” residents in Lahaina are healing after the deadly Maui wildfires with the help of a Hawaiian tradition: surfing.
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The Aug. 8 wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii – the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century – took the lives of at least 115 people, with the number of missing still unknown. With lives and homes devastated, residents are searching for a sense of normalcy. Surfing offers a reprieve for many of those affected by the tragic event.
“It can be a great way for people to heal. Like ocean therapy, saltwater therapy,” said former professional surfer and surfboard shaper, Jud Lau. “The ocean is a healing place.”
With the help of his Instagram followers and donations, Lau and other board shapers on Maui are replacing boards for those who lost them in the fire.
Lahaina resident Victoria Gladden, a mother of three daughters, lost five boards in the fire, as well as everything else she owned. Getting back in the water was crucial for her to reconnect with herself in post-fire chaos.
With the help of the Surfboard Replacement Project, Gladden and her eldest daughter Brianna reconnected with the water, finding peace on the waves.
“This is just my favorite place in the whole entire world is the ocean,” she said after surfing for the first time since the fire.“I will never, ever live in a place where I cannot be in the water. I wouldn't, no way. What kind of life would that be?”
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So I had already known about this custom surfboard shaper on Maui up in Haiku. |
| 0:14.7 | I was already following his Instagram account because I'm interested in surfboards. |
| 0:21.9 | That's a lot he is Adi, normally she hosts this show, but she's also a reporter here at |
| 0:26.8 | the post. |
| 0:27.8 | When she recently went to Maui to report on the wildfire in LaHina, it was the deadliest |
| 0:32.8 | wildfire in the U.S. and more than a century. |
| 0:35.9 | And the LaHey went to learn how people are responding to this tragedy. |
| 0:40.0 | That's why she wanted to meet up with the surfboard shaper. |
| 0:42.7 | I saw after the fire on August 8th that he was posting all of these things on his page, |
| 0:48.8 | soliciting surfboard donations as part of the surfboard replacement project. |
| 0:53.5 | And he was looking to replace the surfboards of people who lost them in the fires. |
| 0:58.9 | And so while I'm flying to Maui, I send him a message, and by the time I land, he |
| 1:04.0 | says, yeah, come by the shop. |
| 1:05.6 | And so I get off the plane, get into my rental car, and drive up to Haiku, which is up |
| 1:11.6 | country Maui. |
| 1:12.6 | It's far from LaHina. |
| 1:14.8 | And I start talking to him. |
| 1:16.6 | My name is Jud Lau, and I shape surfboards, and I coach young surfers here on Maui. |
| 1:22.5 | Immediately, I was just struck by his sort of calm demeanor, and he, to me, felt like |
| 1:28.3 | he had this sort of gentle spirit. |
| 1:30.8 | He's a surfer, he's competed professionally. |
| 1:34.6 | He coached kids to surf on the island, and also in LaHina Harbor. |
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