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Reno
- Thread starter One-Off
- Start date
It's tough, watching / knowing that a Friend from decades back has gotten into some rough times. He looked pretty good when he attended the Surf Legends Luau here on Kauai's north shore some years back but I guess if you have nothing to fall back on to keep one's self going and occupied for life's up's and down's, it's a rude awakening. Not sure how it's come to be for Reno, but I only wish him the best for his recovery from the unwarranted altercation.
photoPPK ~ Surf Legends Luau, Kalihiwai Kauai
photoPPK ~ Surf Legends Luau, Kalihiwai Kauai
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Reno was a super nice guy the couple of times i spoke to him. Not sure why anyone would bad mouth him...especially given what just happened. Hope he recovers.
When he last visited my Shaping room at the mill he called me "Professor" ;-)
He's had a very bumpy life the last few years
He's had a very bumpy life the last few years
Been seeing Reno living in the Bowls/Kaisers parking lot for the last 3 years. He/they would get chased out and camp cleaned up by DLNR ( dept of nat. Res.) after enough complaints then after a bit they’d return.
Mentioned it in a post that I saw a living legend homeless but didn’t want to put him on blast. Heard a group of surfers with resources offered to send him to rehab but he refused. So I mentioned his name in a later post.
Not surprised he was beaten up. Not saying it’s right or that I’m ok it happened. Reno has been very aggressive and confrontational and have seen on numerous occasions him escalating situations if he felt disrespected or challenged.
Pretty sure it’s both substance abuse and mental illness that led to him being homeless. He’s burned a lot of bridges because of both and is the reason he hasn’t been shaping to get on his feet again.
Lots of surfers even some older ones didn’t know what he meant for the progression of performance surfing and board design. They only saw the crazy guy living in the parking lot yelling at someone he had beef with.
It’s tough. I know him from before but I just kept my distance cause if he hit me up for a few bucks and I say no he might lash out. But I’ve left empty cans, food and first aid supplies with some of the easier going homeless surfers to share amongst them, Reno included.
Mentioned it in a post that I saw a living legend homeless but didn’t want to put him on blast. Heard a group of surfers with resources offered to send him to rehab but he refused. So I mentioned his name in a later post.
Not surprised he was beaten up. Not saying it’s right or that I’m ok it happened. Reno has been very aggressive and confrontational and have seen on numerous occasions him escalating situations if he felt disrespected or challenged.
Pretty sure it’s both substance abuse and mental illness that led to him being homeless. He’s burned a lot of bridges because of both and is the reason he hasn’t been shaping to get on his feet again.
Lots of surfers even some older ones didn’t know what he meant for the progression of performance surfing and board design. They only saw the crazy guy living in the parking lot yelling at someone he had beef with.
It’s tough. I know him from before but I just kept my distance cause if he hit me up for a few bucks and I say no he might lash out. But I’ve left empty cans, food and first aid supplies with some of the easier going homeless surfers to share amongst them, Reno included.
After hurricanes Iwa and Iniki, the parking lot at Kaisers / Ala Moana changed. There was a very small group that lived in the lot and kept to themselves, had jobs and would return in the evenings. I worked the beach for Clyde Aikau with Dennis Sombrano at the Hilton Beach giving surf lessons and Hobie cat rides.
Some of the best California surfers lived in the parking lot during the summer time South shore swell periods and then move to the north shore for the winter surf. Food and beer from the small store on Ala Moana Blvd and Hobron lane or Foodland at Ala Moana Center.
Different types of folks have moved into the parking lot over the years, not only "surfer's" and bringing a different type of mood and vibe. One can walk down the asphalt "walkway" just back from the rocks where everyone backs into parking stalls with expired license plates or safety check stickers and ask " who get da kine" and someone will point to a car, truck or van.
Different times, different human species, same location.
Some of the best California surfers lived in the parking lot during the summer time South shore swell periods and then move to the north shore for the winter surf. Food and beer from the small store on Ala Moana Blvd and Hobron lane or Foodland at Ala Moana Center.
Different types of folks have moved into the parking lot over the years, not only "surfer's" and bringing a different type of mood and vibe. One can walk down the asphalt "walkway" just back from the rocks where everyone backs into parking stalls with expired license plates or safety check stickers and ask " who get da kine" and someone will point to a car, truck or van.
Different times, different human species, same location.
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Homelessness in Honolulu is probably the worst I've seen it as far as volume of people and amount of mentally ill.
These kind of altercations happen every day.
These kind of altercations happen every day.
Exactly.
There's something very wrong with that.
And for females, add sexual violence into the equation.
Permissive attitudes towards the homeless situation have enabled this.
The substance abuse/mental illness cycle is the primary enabler. O'Connor v. Donaldson and the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (in CA) basically said you can't force a mentally ill person to get help, so 50 years later we've got a huge homeless problem.
The homeless situation is out of control. I stayed in Waikiki a few weeks back for one night. Homeless all over Kalakaua. Everywhere. I was standing on the pool deck of the Marriott enjoying a beer and watched two homeless guys across the street scrap over drugs in broad daylight. They would harass tourists and make everyone uncomfortable. My wife didn't feel safe when we walked to dinner that night. I couldn't imagine how tourists who come from the mainland feel about being harassed by homeless people all day.
Once Kirk got stabbed there and died right outside it’s van it kind of lost its edge
Reno’s been having hard time last few years
same story as teeroi’s, but at the Pipe tower
braddahs getting fed up
it’s a mental illness issue, getting steadily worse. Very sad. Reno is normally a sweet and funny guy
if there was ever a more stylish surfer in big waves, I can’t name them
same story as teeroi’s, but at the Pipe tower
braddahs getting fed up
it’s a mental illness issue, getting steadily worse. Very sad. Reno is normally a sweet and funny guy
if there was ever a more stylish surfer in big waves, I can’t name them
Have to agree regarding the homeless situation in Waikiki. Each time I have gone to Oahu in the past few years, I thought that it could not get any worse. Each following visit has proven me wrong and it seems to be continuing to be following a downhill spiral.I recently accompanied my Wife on one of her business trips to Honolulu. We stayed in Waikiki, and when she was dealing with various State Bureaucrats downtown, I just cruised my old haunts in Waikiki. Pretty unsettling, even during the day. During the evenings, we would walk to different restaurants for dinner. I tried to explain to her that it is not the "old" Waikiki and at night a whole different cast of characters emerges. She kept telling me that I was exaggerating and it could not be that bad now. As if on cue, walking down the sidewalk at us is a guy with no shirt and attempting to pull his shorts up from his ankles, making noises and lunging at the tourists. Pretty shocking and unsettling for a Country girl from Maui. The rest of our stay, at night she refused to go any further Diamond Head past the Moana.
The situation with Reno is just sad. I have known Reno since the old Kui O Hawaii Surf Club days and hope there is a good outcome to his story.
Agree.
But permissive attitudes have done a lot to make people more comfortable on the streets and have allowed the situation to proliferate.
Even the homeless say so.
O'Connor v. Donaldson made total sense - the interpretation/application has been willfully incorrect.
As far as LPS goes, lots of work has been done to lay out criteria to reform it but no action has been taken.
I posted this story before. I worked at Local Motion in the 80’s and Reno shaped for Local Motion. Not sure how many boars he was contracted for a month but he used the shaping room at the factory that guest shapers and the 8 boars a month shapers used. The factory was on Hamakua in Kailua right where Egans Boot Camp is now.
I went there on the way home to pick up a custom I ordered from Dave Hill or Ronnie Woodward. Reno was still there. I think he would shape later in the day into the night when that shaping room was available.
He took me and my new boar upstairs to the shaping room and gave me a lesson on what to look for and how to use the lights to see all the curves and contours on my boar. Reno took some sandpaper and tuned the edges on my glass on fins and showed me what I should look for on my next boars, and how to make sure they wouldn’t hum. He told me about how Brewer showed him the same things.
Reno was one of the first guys I saw that used wind surfer tech on surfboars. He used carbon stranded glass and carbon strips down the middle to alter flex. He shaped a lot of Sunset specific boars for Poto and other pros using that glassing schedule.
It’s sad cause that Reno is still in there. I would overhear him in the Bowls parking lot breaking down the design elements in a boar and why things work and why a boar feels a certain way over a another. But then that mental illness and substance dependency would rear its ugly head and shatter the moment.
Real bummer. He’s an Icer and hard to stop once you start and go down that path.
Derek Ho was addicted to Ice and in trouble with the law too.
Lot of people are surprised to hear that when they find out.
Derek Ho was addicted to Ice and in trouble with the law too.
Lot of people are surprised to hear that when they find out.
