ASD icon blue inverse lighter

ASD Staff

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"My cat and my dog go through my new curtain differently..."}]

Smile 26 5 16

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, May 16, 2026</title>

My cat and my dog go through my new curtain differently...

Daily Smile: Saturday, May 16, 2026

 My cat and my dog go through my new curtain differently...

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

Legendary waterman Brian Keaulana, who calls Mākaha home, started out in the ocean, surfing and eventually moving to commercials where he found work as a model and actor. It was a part-time gig for the professional surfer. Then, he started doing stunts.

“It's funny because my surfing career was huge and big, and I surfed the Eddie Aikaus and big waves and it's a lifestyle, and it's fun,” he said. “Now, my movie career is actually bigger than my surfing career. And a lot longer, too.”

As a world-renowned actor, stuntman and producer, 

 has spent more than 30 years working in the film industry. He provided critical support for movies like “Jurassic World,” “50 First Dates,” “Waterworld” and “Point Break,” as well as television series like “Hawaiʻi Five-0.” Keaulana is also widely recognized for revolutionizing ocean safety practices and using 

On Saturday, May 16, Keaulana will be honored by the Waikīkī Film Awards with the Hawaiʻi Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hawaiian Aroma Caffé inside the Outrigger Waikīkī Beachcomber Hotel. The event starts at 6 p.m. and features live music from the Island reggae band Natural Vibrations. 

Although his career includes credits in movies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Godzilla,” and “Baywatch,” among others, one of his favorite productions to work on was “Rescue: HI-Surf,” led by Executive Producer John Wells, in part because the show saved lives, he said.

“The reason why I gravitate to that was it was about lifeguarding in Hawaiʻi on the North Shore,” he said. “That show lasted only for one season, but we did 52 real rescues — rescued people that either would have died or got in trouble.”

To this day, the episodes continue to educate viewers on ocean safety, teaching people what to do "if you get trapped in a rip current,” he said. “Or if you fall off one cliff. Or the process of calling 911. To me, it's what impacts or saves lives — that's the most important thing for me.”

Growing up, his father, Buffalo Keaulana — the first city appointed 

 and a pioneer surfer of the 50s and 60s — taught him the language of the ocean and how to “read the weather, the wind, the clouds, the skies, the ocean, the marine life,” he said. His father was also 

one of the original crew members on Hōkūleʻa

’s first historic voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti.

The ocean teaches “how to survive, how to thrive, how to share — all those things — and how to listen ... how to coexist right inside of the ocean and treat the ocean as a living entity, same as the land,” Keaulana said.

Later on, Keaulana had to decide whether or not to move his family to California, but ultimately chose to stay in Hawaiʻi.

“Looking back at my childhood and then having my own family, I told my wife, ʻMan, I don't want to deny my kids the opportunity I had in growing up around culture and family and community,’ ” he said. “And I am glad I did because my kids grew up to be great human beings, and now they have kids. They’re sharing what it is to grow up here at Mākaha, and why it’s so special.”

He is working to help others who call the Islands home find careers in the film industry. In 2023, 

Keaulana — alongside Angela Laprete and Robert Suka — founded the International Cultural Arts Network

, a nonprofit that works to uplift Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in Hawaiʻi’s television and film industry. ICAN offers master classes and learning opportunities for actors and actresses, as well as writers, directors and producers.

Recently, legislation went before Gov. Josh Green for approval which would increase tax credits by 5% on Oʻahu and Neighbor Islands for productions with 

. The changes would apply retroactively to filming that already occurred in 2026.  

 said. “My school was basically just got involved and learned through the industry.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"What else has the ocean taught him?"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Patience,” he said, with a laugh. "}]

“It's something that a lot of people don't have nowadays,” he said. “They want things right here, right now. The ocean for me has been my school. It's been my church. It's been my place to eat. And so much of the ocean has given not only me, but my whole family, our success. Because my father, being who he was, and just putting us out there, he knew that the ocean was safe for us. The land is where people get in trouble. A lot of my friends growing up over here got in trouble and even went to jail. Some of them died. And some succeeded.”

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Brian Keaulana

<title>Mākaha waterman receives lifetime achievement award</title>

Brian Keaulana got his start in the movie industry as a stuntman. Recently, the waterman was a producer for Apple TV’s “Chief of War,” which stars his cousin, Jason Momoa, and Fox’s “Rescue: HI-Surf.” Keaulana reflects on the ocean, plus opportunities for youth to grow into careers in the film industry, where he has worked for more than three decades.

Mākaha waterman receives lifetime achievement award

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Government & Politics

Kevin Auger, the director-designate of the City and of County of Honolulu's 

newly formed Department of Housing and Land Management

, says Iwiliei-Kapālama is a model, or pilot, of what the future of transit-oriented development can be — mixed-income communities that are walkable, climate-ready and connected.

"It's not just about what gets built, but about how we build it — with transparency, with urgency and with people at the center of every decision," he told Aloha State Daily in an email.

There have been long-term plans in the works for the redevelopment of the area, and just last week, the city took a step forward in its effort to do so.

, or RFP, looking for a multidisciplinary planning and development team to prepare a TOD plan dubbed "Transforming Iwilei-Kapālama: Connecting People and Places,"  which the RFP says is a "coordinated TOD and infrastructure investment program for development around the Iwilei-Kapālama sub-corridor." 

"In plain terms," Auger says, "the city is trying to go beyond just talking about future growth and planning, actually beginning to activate the planning efforts with real developments that can deliver more affordable housing. Over the years, many plans have outlined what a walkable, transit-oriented, affordable neighborhood could look like in Iwilei-Kapālama — this effort is about putting those ideas into action. It’s the difference between having a blueprint and starting construction."

The effort is spearheaded by DHLM and the city Department of Transportation Services.

high-opportunity TOD district," the city said in a June 4 announcement that this is the first time the Iwilei-Kapālama subcorridor will be master planned through a formalized joint city and state effort. The city noted, too, that the area includes major city and state properties, direct access to two Skyline stations, and proximity to existing parks, schools and public services. 

Auger says that this effort is "directly aligned" with the city's 2025 to 2028 strategic housing plan 

, "which, again, calls for an aggressive approach to active public land to deliver more affordable housing, especially around transit."

The city owns about 7 acres within the Kūwili Station TOD redevelopment area, he says, including 

Iwilei Center and the former First Hawaiian Bank building

 on North King Street, as well as several parcels near the Kūwili station that were acquired to "support affordable housing and transit-oriented development."

"Altogether, more than 75% of land in the district is under city or state control, making it one of the rare areas where large-scale, publicly guided redevelopment is truly possible."

For Auger, this effort is the kind of work the city's housing plan envisioned: coordinated, focused on implementation and rooted in long-term community impact.

"What makes Iwilei-Kapālama so exciting is the scale of what's possible," he said. "We're not just talking about one building or one project — we're talking about a chance to shape an entire complete neighborhood, built around transit, with housing, mobility and infrastructure planned together from the ground up."

These types of public-private and intergovernmental partnerships are essential, he says. 

"No single agency can tackle housing alone. But by bringing together the city, the state and the development community under a shared roadmap, we can move faster, smarter and more equitably. This RFP sets that roadmap in motion."

This is different from, but closely related to, a request for qualifications, or RFQ, issued earlier this year for the 

redevelopment of the city-owned Iwilei Center

Auger says that RFQ is a "site-specific solicitation to select a development partner for that one city-owned property, which occupies approximately four acres of land."

By contrast, "Transforming Iwilei-Kapālama: Connecting People and Places" is a "district-wide initiative" to master-plan the 17-acre Kūwili Station Transit Oriented Development area and coordinate infrastructure and connectivity efforts across the broader Iwilei-Kapālama Skyline sub-corridor, he said.

"Together, these two efforts are strategically timed to be undertaken as parallel," Auger says, also noting that the master-planning effort ensures that projects like the Iwilei Center redevelopment aren't being done in isolation, "but instead help advance a larger vision for a walkable, transit-connected, mixed-income neighborhood centered around the Kūwili and Niuhelewai rail stations."

According to the city, the RFP initiative is backed by a $2 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration's TOD Pilot Program, awarded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, along with a $700,000 State TOD Capital Improvement Planning Grant from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.

Proposals are due by noon June 26. More information can be 

0605 0848 Iwilei Kuwili Reimagined

<title>Honolulu takes next step in Iwilei-Kapālama redevelopment</title>

The city has put out a request for proposals to find a multidisciplinary planning and development team to prepare a transit-oriented development plan dubbed "Transforming Iwilei-Kapālama: Connecting People and Places."

Daily Smile: Saturday, May 16, 2026

ASD Staff

More in Daily Smile

Daily Smile: Friday, May 15, 2026

Daily Smile: Thursday, May 14, 2026

Daily Smile: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Daily Smile: Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Most read

Daily Smile: Saturday, May 16, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

More in Daily Smile

Daily Smile: Friday, May 15, 2026

Daily Smile: Thursday, May 14, 2026

Daily Smile: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Daily Smile: Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Most read