The Conversation: OHA election outcome; Fully-electric test flights

Aloha, this is Catherine Cruz. Mahalo for joining us here on the conversation. Hawaii Talks. It is Tuesday, August 11th. Today we take a closer look at a race that bounced the longest-serving lawmaker in the Senate out of office with a margin of two to one. We also take a look at the results for the Office of Wine Affairs where incumbents got the advantage. And this summer, there were some new planes in the sky, but you may not have realized they were electrified flying machines. And a local author makes a splash with her debut novel about how the power of water can transform our lives. And flag football is having more than just a moment. This month, Hawaii Pacific University will welcome members of its inaugural flag football team. Go sharks! Support for HPR comes from Blue Note Hawaii. In Duke by Moses Goods, the Hawaiian actor performs his one-man show about the life of Waterman Duke Kahanamoku, August 20th in two sets. Tickets at Blue Note Hawaii.com.

You're tuned to the conversation here on Hawaii Public Radio. I'm Catherine Cruz. We were just coming off of the primary, and one of the interesting upsets had to do with the longest-serving lawmaker, Les Ihara, who was challenged by a lawmaker in the house. Here to talk about that is Honolulu Civil Beats, Chad Blair. Good morning, Chad. Good morning, Catherine. Yes, so this certainly surprised me. You know, I had a feeling Senator Iara might be in a little trouble. I interviewed both of them early on about six weeks before the primary on Saturday. Jackson Salyama seemed very focused, very energetic, had a lot to talk about. Senator Hara seemed more passive, more reserved. He never did actively campaign much, except he did send out a brochure. I think he ran a couple of advertisements in the Hongo Luzter Advertiser. But it was clearly a difference of view on what was important in terms of running. And Siyama coming in to take on a veteran incumbent of the same party. It's pretty remarkable. That did happen in several other races in the legislature this year, but those were all resoundingly rejected. Not in this case, Jackson Shyama, by a two-to-one margin, knocked out Lesihara, who's been in, I'm not exaggerating her, 40 years, both if you combine his House service and his time in the Senate. Yes, and, you know, when you had this loss and there was no hint of scandal, you know, in his campaign, and full disclosure, this is my district. And so, you know, I was intrigued, you know, with all the flyers that I was getting in my mailbox by the candidates. But I think I only got one from less. Yeah, and it was sort of an unusual one. It was a six-page, really a brochure, not a real colorful mailer like you saw from Siama. I should just full disclosure. or the Honolulu Civil Beat offices are actually in the district as well, both right near the House District for, well, in the House District for Sayama. Here we are in Kaimaki, as well as the Senate District for Ihara. But, I mean, Sayama did it the old-fashioned way. He signed Ways, along with his mother, regularly. He did not only send out those mailers, but those mailers emphasized generational change. Sayama is 29. IHara is 75. He even had, if you will, veteran lawmakers like Calvin Shea, who lives in the district, backing them up and saying, yes, we need some new voices here. And I think that was appealing. A horror for his part. wasn't as interested in talking about that. He's moved to a point in his career where he is looking back at how things will come to be the way they are. And rather than just debate, how are we going to fix affordable housing? You know, how are we going to deal with this? He's looking at things more philosophically and less focused on solutions to the problems that everybody is facing.

Yes, and, you know, I know that Soyama was just a full of energy out there knocking on doors. And, you know, early on in his career when he was running for the house, I know he seized on that idea that, you know, people's cars or the catalytic converters were getting stolen and, you know, looking for issues that resonated with folks in the district. Right. He's last on the paid family leave recently, too, an issue that has really solved the legislature. But I would also just say that these things do happen. And I wonder if it kind of shakes other people up because, as you know, we do not have term limits at the legislature. We do know, and you're right, it was a very clean race. There's no scandal, no corruption between these men. It was civil. Les was even told by Jackson, hey, I'm going to run. And Les said, come on in. Welcome. And at the Unity Breakfast on Sunday at the Alamana Hotel, they embraced. They gave each other a big hug. And it was sincere. It was real. And so it was kind of, I mean, as tough as it is to see Lethihara end his career that way. It was heartwarming to see how graceful he was with his exit. Yes, and talk a little bit, though, about the campaign war chest, because usually the incumbents have amassed, you know, a hefty, a healthy balance. Yeah. No, no, this is not Donovan Della Cruz that we're talking about. Lesihara for a long time has not taken campaign contributions. There weren't any in his current filing. He lent himself money, and a lot of that money went to that brochure and those ads that we talked about. He actually ended up in debt. Whereas Sayama got a lot of money from the usual suspects, including a lot of people in the house, a lot of his colleagues, which you can do, gave to his campaign, so did some pretty well-known executives, so did lobbyists. In other words, a very typically funded campaign for Hawaii race. But that's how you pay for those campaign signs. That's how you pay for that bottled water that you're drinking when you're out there sliding an odd sun on Tolo Avenue, and really a buy-the-book campaign. Yeah, just an interesting race, though, to, you know, to scrutinize as we ponder, you know, the old guard and the new guard. Yep, yeah, there will be new faces in the legislature in 2027. Jackson Sanyama will be one of them. Yes, all right. Well, thank you so much, Chad. Thanks, Catherine. We've been hearing from Chad Blair, the politics editor for Honolulu Civil Beat. You can read his story online at civilbeat.org.

And this morning we linger at the ballot box. HPR's Cassie Ordoneo takes a closer look at the outcome of the races for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Good morning. Good morning, Catherine. Thanks for having me. Yes. So what struck you with the OHA races? I mean... Nothing really. We do know that name recognition has shown to really play a part in the August primary election for three seats on the OHA at-large race. And so we have the incumbents and the current trustees, Brickwood Gallutaria. John Wahe I, the 4th, and Keone Susa, they made it, and they will face off with seasoned politician and former Honolulu City Council member, Ikaaika Anderson. We have a teacher, Adrian Kaeli Iakina, and self-described fishermen, Konekoa Crabb, and that's who they're going to be going up against for the November. But something that was pretty interesting. But not so interesting at the same time is the election results show that Oahu really determined the final order of the at-large race because, I mean, Oahu accounted for about 70% of the votes. And then for the Oahu numbers. Galutaria came in first. We know that he's a former state senator and a radio personality, so name recognition probably played a part. Coming in second was John Wea He the fourth, although he probably was the most balanced statewide candidate winning Kauai, Maui, and Big Island. But he came in second on Oahu. Ikega Anderson came in third, and his third place finish was very heavily driven by Oahu voters. Yeah, like you mentioned name recognition. He's someone that people... knows experienced, knows his way around, you know, Honolulu Halle and the state legislature. And he's a very competitive campaigner, too, with backings from unions as well. So he can, he can raise and spend money. Incumbent Keone Susa came in fourth. But he actually beat Ikaika Anderson on every neighboring island. And his support was especially strong on Maui in particular. Interesting. Akina, I know he's a teacher. He came in fifth place across all islands. And Krab held sixth place overall, mostly because his Oahu numbers. But this race is going to come down to a fight for that third spot for the November general election. And that's according to Jacob Aki. And he's the president of the Oahu Council of Association of Huff. Hawaiian civic clubs. So if I was Keone, I'd be really focusing on what Ekaika is doing, you know, and making sure that I'm, you know, keeping up with his pace because I do anticipate that both candidates, both Keone and Ikeko are going to turn their general election campaigns into hyperdrive.

right now, and what is that going to look like? Corey Kika, if I'm in his spot, I'm going to try to raise as much money as I can, try to get as much advice as I can because that's ultimately what's going to kind of, you know, help get him forward. But if I'm killing it, I'm worried, but I think he has the infrastructure and the ability to do so. He also has a lot of large unit support. He's proven that he can raise a lot of money. His radio jingles, TV jingles were things that I think would be very attractive to. Well, voters, I think, you know, both are going to really kick their fundraising efforts into hyperdrive now. But it's going to be interesting to see what their strategy, you know, and what sort of dynamics they break. What can you tell us about the campaign war chest? So Keone Sousa and Ikeke Anderson, they have shown that they are competitive campaigners. When I looked at Keone Sousa's campaign spending report for the election period, he raised more than $14,000 for this election period, and he spent more than $8,800. And that money was mostly spent on signs, banners, social media advertising. And he has support. He got $6,000 from the ILWU Local 142. and $1,000 from iron workers for better government. But when you really look at Keone's strategy, he really sticks to jingles like this one.

So that might appeal to voters. For Ikaika Anderson, he raised more than $33,000 and spent more than $21,000. And he still has more than $1,100 cash on hand. So he spent most of that money also on campaigning, like digital advertisement, TV ads, radio, and traveling to different islands to get his name out there to get support from the neighboring islands. He also gets support from unions, like more than $2,000 from the local union to... 93 state legislative fund. But I've been seeing most of his campaigning on Facebook like this one. O'OHA. I'm Eka Anderson, candidate for OHA trustee at large. It's time to get back to the core mission of OHA, providing a better quality of living for Native Hawaiians. We need stability for our O'Hanga with affordable housing, tuition assistance for our undergrad and graduate students, and support assistance for small business, health care, financial hardship, and legal issues. I'm Ikeika Anderson, and I humbly ask for your vote for OHA trustee at large in the primary election on August 8th. And you mentioned, you know, the name recognition, but I know somebody who was really confused about Kili Akina and Kaili Akina. Just off by a letter. So no, it's this. Kali Iakina is not the incumbent. It's a completely different Kali-I-A-Kina. It's Adrian Kali-I-A-Kina, who's a teacher. But, you know, he shows that he can raise a little bit of money. He's raised $800, spent more than $400. But it's going to take, you know, a lot of work to get, you know, his name out there if he wants to win the vote, even though his last name starts with the A. And like the inside joke is that if your name starts with an A, people are most likely going to vote for you. Yeah, interesting. All right. Well, race is to... watch, but thank you so much, Cassie. Thank you. We've been hearing from HPA's Cassie Ordoneo. Look for her stories at Hawaiipublicradio.org.org.

You know, this summer there was something new in the skies. They were all electric planes taking flight as part of a demonstration by beta technologies and Mokulele Airlines. The airline has flirted with electric planes in the past as a way to reduce carbon emissions and lower costs on short-haul regional flights to Lanai and Molokai. But Mokoleli's parent company dove headfirst into the field this spring when announced a firm order for 25 of Betu's aircraft. Pilots gained experience flying the five-seater Aaliyah around the islands for six weeks this summer. Sheridan, Fabricius, is the director of aircraft sales at Better Technologies. She talked with age peers, Maddie Bender. The demonstration went extremely well. The feedback was tremendous. So there were a few different pillars to the demonstration. There was absolutely a community engagement piece. So we participated in events on several islands. We were at Hawaiian Airlines Aviation Day on Oahu. We were at the Molokai Resource Fair on Molokai, and we were at the Lanai Pineapple Festival in Lanai, and then also had some engagements over on Maui. We got to interact with a lot of different populations and get their initial feedback of how this form of transportation would increase their accessibility and overall their quality of life. So the community engagement piece was fantastic. Separately from that, we were able to do a lot of training and familiarization flights with Mokalei Airlines pilots. So they're a committed customer of ours. And this, again, gives them the opportunity to validate those routes and understand how the aircraft will integrate seamlessly into the national airspace, into their loading and ground handling exercises, and that it's safe and reliable and affordable. So there were not only the community aspect, but also some very technical hard learnings that we wanted to capture with the aircraft. And then lastly, this aircraft specifically is in a cargo configuration. So we took the opportunity to show how the aircraft performs at max gross takeoff weight. And we were flying the aircraft at 99.5% of max gross takeoff weight and still completed the mission as planned. And... That mission, just to be clear, were these flights from Honolulu to Lanai and Molokai and back?

Yes, exactly. So since in this case, we were working with two major airlines, they have a need to fly against short haul flights, but multiple legs a day. And dispatch reliability is everything to these customers. So we needed to prove that the aircraft could go 100% of the time every time in different weather conditions, with different cargo payloads. you know, VFR, IFR, we wanted to show that the aircraft can operate exactly as their fleet does today. In terms of the actual handling of the aircraft, is it much different from what Mokulele pilots may be accustomed to? It is a very easy transition to move from a legacy aircraft into the Aaliyah aircraft. Part of that is because we partnered with Garmin on the avionics. So the airplane has a Garmin G3,000 cockpit. And the Mokalei pilots today are flying in the Cessna caravan that also has a Garmin cockpit. So it's like upgrading your iPhone from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 13. You're getting a lot more capability. It's more user-friendly, faster processing speeds. The graphics are much better when you're looking at traffic or weather or terrain. So it's a sophisticated modern product, but the way that it speaks to all the systems on board is exactly the same architecture. And in the case of beta, the way that we display are energy synoptics. So the one piece that's new and novel about this is that you're showing battery instead of fuel. And we made it so there's no added workload on the pilot. There's no mental calculation that they have to do. And that enables them to move back and forth between fuel powered aircraft and battery powered aircraft without a learning curve. And that keeps them safer in the cockpit ultimately. This is not the first time that Mokulele has partnered with a company to try out electric planes. In 2020, they partnered with a company called Ampair to run some trials for their hybrid plane, I believe. And we have heard for... years about issues with connectivity between the neighbor islands, particularly Molokai and Lanai. And I just wonder from your perspective, why do you feel like this is a problem that betas, all electric planes, are uniquely suited to solve? You know, like, why couldn't we just add more Cessna's to the fleet? Or, I mean, some of these contracts are up for renewal, go with another airline provider. if the issue is that connectivity.

That is a great question and very multifaceted. I'll start with the technology itself and just acknowledge that this is no small undertaking to bring electric propulsion to market. It's been experimental for a while now, but to commercialize and certify and deploy it, particularly in a scheduled Part 121 environment, is a really tall order. But the technology is ready now. And because beta has taken such a vertically integrated approach, we're helping the entire market come to fruition. So we're selling our engines to other electric aircraft manufacturers, for example. And that enables the charge infrastructure to justify the cost and putting permanent equipment in the ground. So it brings a whole industry forward. And we're signing on. to multiple consortium agreements on the charge equipment itself with other manufacturers. And through gamma, we've all signed on to a common standard or CCS1 for charging these aircraft. What is most important is that everyone's working towards a common goal and we're not fighting against each other. So the more, you know, we just feel like it's a team sport to bring electric aviation to market. And we see the benefit that it provides on the sustainability front. So to answer the second part of your question, why not add more caravans? is because our aircraft reduce the emissions. There's zero tailpipe emissions coming off of our aircraft. Not only that, but the electricity cost is dramatically reduced from jet fuel costs. So the operating economics are more favorable. So we can do it, you know, we can do it cheaper. Why that's relevant to people on Molokai and Lanai? There's a couple reasons. First would be, These are really price sensitive consumers that have a need to get between islands. It's not a luxury. It's part of their daily life and it's critical to their families and their businesses. So it has to be affordable. And with electric aircraft, you can drive the cost lower. And it makes a difference when they're looking at a $90 ticket or a $60 ticket. That price difference will matter to these communities. And the second piece, again, is the sustainability aspect. So Hawaii has a mandate to be net zero emissions by 2045. And these airlines play a tremendous role in achieving that goal. So the community members, we were expecting some sort of friction or reluctance when we came in from Vermont as outsiders saying, hey, we can help make your communities better. Let us show you our airplane and our technology and what it can do for you. We always expect a level of skepticism, but we were received with the opposite. People were just clamoring. How fast can we get there?

how quickly can surf air mobilize these aircraft? When are they taking delivery of their ordered? And so the response was fantastic. And we're really excited to be in Hawaii. And it left a lasting impression on each of our folks that were on the ground there. Well, it seems like there needs to be a disruptor in this field in much the same way you think about Tesla disrupting the electric vehicle market and maybe. Betas positioning itself to be that sort of disruptor. Yes, we get that comparison a lot, actually, largely because of our charge network. So you mentioned the Tesla superchargers earlier, and I was really impressed to see those when we were out on the islands because I know power is a constraint. And... We've taken the same approach in building out the charge network. So we have over 55 sites online in the mainland that, again, allow us to take off in our aircraft and go pressure test the whole environment and pull up at a charge cube on airport, scan the QR code that taps into our software and our app, charge the aircraft, and just get all the learnings from that charge system. you know, what are the temperatures of the battery? What are the turn times looking like? And then in addition to those fast chargers that we put on airport, we do sell a portable mini-cube, which is exactly like your in-home garage charger for your Tesla. So if you're putting the airplane away overnight in the hangar, this is a great option to slowly trickle charge the battery, which doesn't, you know... cause the heat to raise and cause much stress on the battery to charge it slowly like that. So very similarly to Tesla, we're building out that charge network and we are not making it a proprietary product. So you can charge. delivery trucks and school buses and if it's on airport you can they you know the airport staff can charge all of their rampside vehicles so it is totally fair to draw that comparison and building out the entire ecosystem making it a real user experience having a unique brand that yeah hopefully gets us positive attention and positive reception with our customers all right so These six-week trials recently wrapped, you had good results both on the community engagement side and the actual flights. What comes next? We just finished our demonstrations in Hawaii. So we were there for about six weeks. We flew close to 5,000 nautical miles. And some days we were flying over 300 miles doing multiple round robins between Honolulu, Molokai, and Lanai. And we had 100% dispatch rate, which is fantastic. So we didn't encounter any situations that caused us to ground the airplane. That is exactly what customers like Surf Air Mobility and Hawaiian Airlines wanted to see from the product.

From here, we're taking that airplane back to the mainland, actually, because there was an executive order for an EV-Tol integration pilot program or EIPP. So executive order that is helping bring, again, these new advanced air mobility aircraft to market and giving us some framework to broaden our test envelope in the pre-certification era. And Beto was awarded in seven of the eight projects. So we're currently kicking off everywhere from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Utah. We're all across the U.S. So you'll see us flying similar demonstrations with a multitude of customers, a multitude of state governments that are all endorsing these projects. And you'll see our demonstration fleet. takeoff. And this is just a huge statement where the industry is headed and the need for collaboration for each Department of Transportation, the FAA. So the regulator has to join in. The insurance companies have to join in. The manufacturers have to lock arms. And we're all working toward a common goal here. That was Beta Technologies shared in for Riches, talking with HVR's Maddie Bender. They were discussing the test run of all-electric airplane flights between Oahu, Molokai, and Lanai. Mokulele's parent company has committed to buying 25 of the all-electric alia planes, beta plans to deliver the fleet in about two to three years when those planes will become permanent additions to Hawaii Skyline.

I'm The debut novel from a local author takes inspiration from natural disasters that have become an inevitable part of life here in Hawaii. Everything to the sea follows two young adults navigating love and loss in the wake of a tsunami that decimates Helotown. Our intern, Addis Bely sat down with author Alicia Upano to discuss facing grief and rebuilding after everything you know gets wiped away. Everything to the Sea is a literary love story set against disaster. We meet our young lovers Jane and Kenji the summer before a tsunami levels their hometown in Hilo, Hawaii. The wave divides these lovers, and we spend the next decade following them as they grieve, try and rebuild their lives, and find their way back to each other. And can you tell me a little bit about what inspired you to write this novel? Yeah, it's hard to pinpoint one singular thing, but what I can say... Sometimes people ask me, did the lovers come first or did the tsunami come first? And the reality is that they both came together at the same time because I was working on another novel that was a futuristic climate change novel concerned with the environmental toll here in Hawaii. Some of the things that... I know that we might have to deal with is, of course, rising sea levels, but also an increase in natural disasters. And so there were these two minor characters, Jane and Kenji, who showed up, and they had lost their families in Hilo. And I imagine them as elders of this new generation of... Hawaii kids who would have to deal with the tolls of climate change. But the problem was I only wanted to write about Jane and Kenji. I wanted to write about how they met, how they loved their families, how they fell in love. And what I like to say is that I fell in love with them falling in love. And so the old novel was scrapped and Jane and Kenji became heroes of their own story. I love that. And can you tell me what about natural disasters kind of inspired you? Because I think throughout the past few years, especially, we've seen a lot here in Hawaii, you know, with the Maui wildfires and other very clear impacts of climate change. So what about a tsunami kind of inspired you? You know, here in the islands, obviously, we're so isolated and we're so fragile environmentally. And so we've seen a number of natural disasters come through. You know, the biggest storm that I remember as a kid was Eniki. Hurricane Iniki. And then there's been many things over the years. Obviously, the Maui wildfires several years ago, very heartbreaking. We had the Kono Lo floods earlier this year. And so I think all of these are just reminders of the risk that we face here. Even if we've been lucky thus far, even though I've been witnessed to these from afar, I've been privileged not to have suffered from any of these particular.

natural disasters. But because it's sort of always in our consciousness, it's always something to be aware of. And what risk does that pose to us, both in terms of our homes, our families, the people we love, how do we rebuild after that? I think that there's a point in the book in which Kenji is curating exhibit. from debris after the tsunami. And a reporter asks him, what is the fascination with natural disasters? So what Kenji says is that the fascination is with all natural disasters, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides. They're big events beyond our control. It reminds us, nature is greater than us, that life can be random. But also there's a fascination with its singularity. Most of us will live long lives with twists and turns and loves and losses. But with the natural disaster, it's every loss you can imagine compressed and crystallized into one moment that changes you forever. You must endure the loss and rebuild. And so I think what Kenji reflects on the fascination with natural disasters matches mine. The natural disaster is one major single event, but many of us experience many smaller losses throughout the course of our lives. The way you captured Hawaii in this novel was so special. I lived in Hilo for a few years, and I felt very, I felt immersed. I loved it. What were you keeping at the top of mind when you were trying to? create this version of Hawaii for your novel and really immerse readers and what it's like to live in love in a place like this. Sure, absolutely. I appreciate the question. And thank you as someone who's lived in Hilo. One of the first things I say in my author's note is that this is my imagined Hilo. You know, I began writing this during the pandemic and so I wasn't able to travel. Of course, I love Hilo. I loved it since I was a kid. I've, you know, I went there when I was younger. I certainly went there after the world reopened to research and that sort of thing. But I always want to say that Hilo is much more complex than I could render. And so this is my imagination. But Hawaii in general, as someone who was born and raised here, it was really important for me to at least attempt to render Hawaii in its complexity and its layers. It's beautiful, but it's also complicated. I've got two protagonists who are mixed characters, and they are not so concerned with how the outside world sees themselves, but more concerned kind of with their full humanity. You know, we see them. falling in love, striving in life, grieving. And so that was important for me. And also for them to be aware of what it means to be in Hawaii, where their families came from and what it means to live here today. Can you tell me a little bit about that first point of conflict that kind of fractures Jane and Kenji? Kenji says something to Jane. I wrote it down. And he's when she's looking at her life in Oahu and he says, your life here is make believe. Can you tell me a little bit more about what inspired that specific conflict? Sure, absolutely. So just to add some context there. At this point, Jane and Kenji have fallen in love in Hilo. He has followed her in this romantic gesture, right? To Honolulu. And then the wave hits.

and which is what saves their lives, but it also makes him lose their families. And so he gets a call that his uncle is alive and on a ventilator, and he needs to return to Hawaii Island. And so he wants her to come with him, but she is just frozen with grief, right? So when he says, Your life here is make-believe. He feels like real life is home. No matter if it's shattered, we must go home, we must see it, we must try and find our families. Whereas her kind of dreams of just moving away from Hawaii, building her life elsewhere, that he feels like is make-believe. It's not the sort of depth of the roots that they have back at home. And so that becomes a central conflict between them. He returns to Helod to help rebuild and to honor his family. And she cannot recover her home. She cannot recover her family. And she moves onward. I think for a lot of us who do leave Hawaii for like these periods of time, whether for like college or maybe employment, I think we often do face that kind of doubt about like, I think the lives we create outside of home and what it means to kind of bring that back. Do you have maybe any thoughts or maybe any experience behind kind of the sentiment of that moment with them? So I was born and raised here as well. And I left for college at 18. I spent six years on the East Coast and then I was in California for 10. It also spent one of those years in Asia. And so I came back after. after a 16-year absence in my early 30s. And so, you know, I think when you're growing up here, there's this idea that there's a certain type of experience that you can get elsewhere, whether that's education or work or, and also there's just island fever. There's the adventure of seeing things that are far beyond kind of our shores. But I missed home. And there's a lot of reasons I came home. And I think I had to do that as an older person. I also think that leaving is a young person's move. And so after 16 years gone, I was ready to return. So a lot of people talk about this book as a love story. And I always want to say, yes, it's a love story. But it's also a story about community. It's also a story about grief. And it's also a story about homecoming. I definitely found that theme of kind of homecoming, really impactful. I want to kind of circle back. You talked a little bit about Jane and Kenji having these mixed backgrounds. I just wanted to die deeper into what your kind of thought process was when you were creating these very complex characters. I loved hearing these little snippets about them back in high school and they didn't know each other intimately. And, you know, Jane's kind of like outside the bubble. She's rocking her space buns. The space ones are so popular. Everyone says they love that anyway, yeah. People have big opinions about Jane. They love her, they hate her, they like the space buns. I don't know, you know. And you also have, you know, Kenji, who is like the sports guy. We all know who he has to be in Hawaii. What was going through your head when you were writing them?

Yeah, I think as a Hawaii kid, who's mixed race, so my father's family came from the Philippines in 1929 to work in the sugar plantations. My mother arrived as a wild white woman from San Francisco in the late 70s. And so I'm, of course, of mixed descent. And as were all my friends from different kind of parts of the world, some people newly arrived, some people for decades, some people longer than that. Surely. And so, you know, when I read mixed-race characters in other novels, specifically on the continent, usually their mixedness is a point of contention, whereas I felt like growing up here it was more the norm. And so I wanted to present two characters who are also mixed and had the richness of the cultures that they come from, but also the richness of growing up in Hawaii as mixed children. And so that's part of why I made that choice. It wasn't exactly how... outsiders saw them, but sort of how they saw themselves within the communities that they're in. And given that, even though it's a mixed community, of course, many different personalities. Jane's sort of a weirdo. That's what my friend says. She's a weirdo. Her Catholic school closes in Hilo, and she ends up going into the public high school, which is where Kenji sees her first. And she has, like, her dead grandmother's mu-mu-mo-oos belted at the way. She's got her hair and these big space buns. And he's this kind of quiet, jockish type. And so they're also from different worlds in that way. So same hometown, both mixed kids, very different. Definitely different. I think another one of the really big themes in your book was grief. What is the big takeaway you want readers to feel about grief? That's a good question. I mean, I think what the novel as form is concerned with is the passage of time. And so there's a reason why the disaster in this novel hits in the first quarter of the book, because this is really a story about rebuilding. And I think if you think about grief, grief can be, at least for me personally, grief can be consuming and you can't see the end of it. But then there's time, which can really be your friend. And so we really see them not just rebuilding town, their town and their community, but also rebuilding after grief. And to believe that you can get through it and that we can rebuild. And I hope that it's a life affirming novel ultimately. I remember as I was reading the book, I kept thinking about that saying like grief comes in waves, which maybe is a little bit too on the nose, but definitely came through. When it comes to, I think, Jane and Kenji and their different responses to grief. Because I think they definitely had very different approaches in the novel, one to leave and look for something else versus Kenji kind of goes back and he's really focused. What made you want to take those two approaches? Yeah. I mean, I think from a craft perspective, you need to, I needed to have the characters be as different as possible. The central conflict between them is that he returns and she cannot. And that's what divides them in some ways, not the wave. Jane is somebody who has a stereotypical trajectory outward. It's kind of a typical Western coming of age story. And so she leaves Hawaii. And so in her grief, she just doubles down on that. Kenji's a stereotypical local boy. He finds a lot of his meeting in home and community and family. And so he also doubles down on that as he returns to Hilo to help rebuild. And so many people will critique Jane for not returning. They feel like it's her duty.

I've had long conversations with my cousins, for example, about this. Why does Jane do this? But then we also see Kenji. Again, a novel is concerned with the passage of time. So you have somebody here who has given himself away over and over and over after seven years. And when the lovers have an opportunity to reunite in California, we also see the consequence of that selflessness. At that point, he's disenchanted. He's burned out. So both are true. Like what he did is heroic, but there was a cost to that as well. And Jane running away, that saved her, but it also cost her. So they're just different approaches, and they're trying to reconcile many things, including that. That was author Alicia Upano talking with HBR's Addis Belai about her debut novel, Everything to the Sea. Upano will lead a storytelling workshop at the Pacific tsunami museum in Hilo on September 12th. Check our website for more information.

Support for HPR comes from Hawaii Energy, unlocking energy upgrade options for small businesses. Applications for the Empower Grant now accepted at Hawaiienergy.com slash Empower. Aloha, I'm Chris Vandercook. Join me and my band for Hawaii Public Radio is live from the Atherton on Saturday, August 29th at 6 p.m. for Big City Blues. We'll celebrate the music of B.B. King, Ray Charles, and the post-war blues masters with an evening of soulful, high-energy blues. Get your tickets now at HPRTickets.org. This event is sponsored by HMSA. Support for Hawaii Public Radio comes from the Olson Trust, envisioning a Hawaii where its people are supported by the land, and the land is taken care of by its people. OlsonTrust.com. Hawaii Pacific University will roll out a first this semester, the state's only collegiate flag football team for women. It was just two years ago this month that Hawaii's public schools officially made flag football a sanctioned sport for high school girls. HPU's athletic director, Debbie Snell, just hired its first coach, Candle Corver. She served as assistant coach for the varsity girls flag football team at Kamehameha Schools Kapalama while also coaching intermediate girls soccer. Snell starts us off. We really are supporting women athletes. Our female athletes need a place to go and play and have opportunities. And so that's what we want to do is provide more opportunities for participation for young women. Was it hard to do to convince the board that this was the direction that we needed to go in athletics? No. They were open. Great. Because who would be on this island and not know that flag football is a growing, booming sport that women are all over the place playing. You see it. You look at the news. You look outside. All you have to do is open your eyes and you see that it's growing and people are excited. It's a wonderful opportunity. And so, no, it was not difficult at all to say, look around us. This is opportunity knocking at our door. And we want to be the ones who provide that opportunity for the young women. on this island. And so when you were advertising for the coach, you know, I mean, what were you folks looking for? We were looking for Kanda Korver. That's what we were looking for. Someone who has a passion for it. Someone who values education and a positive mindset and making a difference in the lives of young women. That's what we're looking for. And that's exactly who she is. Well, and Kanda, you were actually involved. with flag football. Yes, yeah, I was lucky enough to coach the inaugural high school season as an assistant coach at Kameha Meha Kapalama. Yeah, and so when you first heard about flag football, I don't know, what popped into your mind?

I wish they had this when I was an athlete. That's literally exactly what I thought. And I think it's just so cool to see female athletes go out on the field and play a very traditionally male-driven sport. And it's really fun just to see the athletes get so excited by the game and to also see them grow in a new space that they never thought they might feel comfortable. in. So I think just as a coach, it's just so wonderful to see a group of 20 athletes playing football. Like me growing up as an athlete, I never really saw that. I never saw a group of women playing football in a very competitive, organized way. Like we had powder puff, but that wasn't the same just because we didn't really have that ability or opportunity to do that. So now that this is an Olympic sport, it's growing at the collegiate level. Growing at the high school level is just a really exciting to be a female in athletics right now. Well, now how does this all work? Because I was thinking, you know, where do you guys practice? And full disclosure, I was on an inaugural sports team, a female crew team for Santa Clara. And we weren't near water. And so we had to get up at like 430 and drive to Berkeley to, you know, row on the estuary. And so where does- That's dedication. So good job. So where does HPU, you know, practice? Well, we're still working on that. We have lots of options and we're still assessing that. Candace. Right now, she's focused on recruiting and signing her first class, which is so very exciting. The first class of female flag football athletes are signing right now to come to Hawaii Pacific University, and we could not be prouder of them. So that's our focus right now. The rest of the details are going to be coming along soon as we look at all the options. And so I have to ask, though, if you're the first college team, then who do you play against? Yeah, good questions. So we stepped out first in the Pack West Conference and decided we were going to build. our program, find the very best coach we could find, which we did, and be first in the Pack West Conference. That's our conference that we belong to NCAA Division II. They are institutions in Northern California, Southern California, and of course Hawaii. So we stepped out first to be ahead of the game, but actually Tuesday this week, the Pack West Conference is having a flag football meeting to discuss a conference sponsoring the sport. So that's coming. We have three institutions in the Pack West Conference. conference who currently offer it as a club level. And you can play club teams and also NAA teams, other division teams as well, and count those towards sports sponsorship. right now. But it's coming in the Pack West Conference. So like all of our other sports, we intend to play a Pack West Conference schedule and play for a Pack West Conference Championship and then a national championship and then on we go up and up and up. So that's our intent. And so, you know, because you have worked with our young athletes with Flag Football at the high school level, I mean, you're hoping to entice a few to, you know, jump on the team with you, huh? Yeah, of course. And I think the flag community

here in Hawaii is just so close, I would say. and really supportive of trying to get all of the athletes the most opportunity and exposure to have. So I feel like for our first ever recruiting class, it really feels like a community recruitment in terms of me calling all of the coaches reaching out to me, whether that's high school, whether that's club, on this island, outer island. So the word is getting out and it's getting out really quickly, which is amazing. So we're just really excited to give a home to these athletes. But yes, of course, there are going to be some athletes. on our first ever team that were part of the two inaugural seasons here in state. The fact that, you know, this is a woman's team and, you know, we've just, you know, come off a milestone for Title IX, you know, and how important it is for equality and education and opportunity, you know, for our athletes. But I don't know. What do you think when you look back to see how far we have come? Oh. I'm old, so I can look back and see how it was and how far we have come, still have far to go for true equity. But we're working on it every day, every week. And we have a lot of support at Hawaii Pacific University. Our president is very supportive of our young women. So, yeah, it's changed over the years. I mean, I remember, you know, wearing the men's uniforms because they got new ones and we got their old ones. You know, that's what happened. That's what happened back in the day. That doesn't happen anymore, thank goodness. And our women are getting to enjoy that. And I'm proud of that. So tell us about the uniforms. Yeah, the most fun part is designing all of the kits. So we're still in the process of designing it, but we have a couple mockups ready to go, just making sure that they look clean and they're comfortable. Because we want the girls to feel very professional because this is a very professional opportunity. And of course, the female athletes these days are very, very concerned about aesthetics and making sure everything looks great. Of course, yes. And that's like the fun part of being a female athlete. Like you can do both. Like you can enjoy your feminine side and also get out and be competitive. And I think. female flag athletes, they are really the pioneers of this space and everything that they do, everything that they stand for helps grow the sports. And we're talking about Title IX and female equity and sports athletics in general. Just imagine a day very, very soon, probably within the next four to five years, where every single NCAA institution ranging from Division I till Division III is offering flag football, women's flag football on their team. That is just...

a tsunami wave of opportunity for female athletes at large. So it's just a really exciting time to be part of it, to experience it, and to also be some of the folks who are helped growing the sport. So it's just, it's amazing. So if our listeners out there maybe have never seen a flag football game, you know, this is a non-contact sport, right? So explain, yeah, what do you look for when you're designing? the uniform for a team like this? Yeah, it's a great question. So, of course, it is supposedly non-contact, but there is contact. It's kind of similar to soccer, I would say, where, you know, you do have to be comfortable with a certain type of contact from the other team. And when we're talking about uniforms, it's really blending that fine line between being comfortable, but also they have to be tight enough so that they don't get in the way of the actual flag being pulled. So... When the flag belt is on the hips, you can't have any part of your uniform impeding that ability to pull the flag. with ease. So typically the refs will do checks like uniform checks, making sure all the uniforms are tucked in and the belt is all secure because that does make a huge difference when you're running at full speed and you're trying to grab these flags from someone else who's trying to run away from you. So making sure that they are equipped correctly, but it's really cool to see the athletic gear. move very quickly to accommodate women's flag football because, again, like, creating this new equipment is also important for everyone. And I know we had mentioned that it's going to be part of the Olympics, right, the summer games. And I just, you know, recall what it was like, you know, when my kids were growing up and they were involved in soccer and then just to see women's soccer just take off, you know, and the Mia Hams and just amazing athletes out there on the field who really influence. you know, a lot of our young people out there. And so it's really an exciting time then to be in the space. Oh, it absolutely is. And we're thrilled to be, like I said, leading the way and being the first in the Pac-West Conference, the first in Hawaii, to offer this opportunity. We're just very excited about it. We are giddy about it. We're planning all the time and looking forward to this and that and the other championship already because we know we can make that happen here. And then as far as, I don't know, sponsorships or... I don't know. Yes, please. So anyone who's interested in sponsoring this team should contact us and let us know we are looking for sponsors all the time. It is expensive to run a program and we're fully behind that. But we do need sponsors to step up. And I know that they are already reaching out to Kanda about sponsoring. And so we welcome those calls as well as calls who are people who are still looking for a place to go play. We welcome those calls. So anyone, go to HPU sharks.com and find us on the website.

We are there and waiting by the phone to talk to you. All right, go sharks. Go sharks. Anything else you want to add? I think just thank you so much for having us on the show and for continuing the conversation for increasing female equity within sports. That was White Pacific University's athletic director Debbie Snell and Candacorvor, who is the newly hired coach for the school's first female flag football team. And we should know HPU is an underwriter of HPR. Thank you. Well, that's it for us. Tomorrow, we plan to take a closer look at a campaign ad that's raising some eyebrows. Sound off on the election results. Call our talkback line 808-792-17. Email us your feedback. Find the conversation as a podcast on Spotify or Apple or check out our website. I'm Catherine Cruz. Join us tomorrow for more of the conversation.