“Halala koko nana, you’re in trouble… and you don’t even know it yet,” is what Ambrose Curry would tell the thief or thieves who made off with 11 of his surfboards the night of Nov. 30. Curry has owned and
“Halala koko nana, you’re in trouble… and you don’t even know it yet,” is what Ambrose Curry would tell the thief or thieves who made off with 11 of his surfboards the night of Nov. 30.
Curry has owned and operated Kapuna Surf Gallery, and earlier his Kapuna Natural Foods store, from a bright yellow building set just off Kuhio Highway across the fire station in Waipouli since 1974, and has left dozens of surfboards stacked up in the open air next to the shop for nearly as long.
People from all over the world have ridden his wholly original boards, a lot of times borrowed or rented for about $20 a day. The borrow/rent system has served him well, he could only recall two boards ever being stolen.
None of the missing boards are the type to sell to make money, the reason being the “obtuse” shapes of the boards he builds, designed especially for those surfers who understand them, he said.
Maybe because it was dark when the boards were being carted off or the thieves didn’t surf, they may not have noticed some of the boards taken were in disrepair and were at his shop to be fixed, he added.
One board in the shop for a broken fin box will cost Ambrose $350 to $400 to replace instead of him making $100 on repairing it. The monetary value of the boards is one issue, but also to be considered is what he calls the “bad karma flowing with the boards.”
“Catching a wave…there’s no rhyme or reason behind it. Sometimes it’s a spiritual thing,” he said, wondering aloud if maybe the boards might conk someone on the head, too. Hawaiian culture says that one shouldn’t do anything to hurt another, or you yourself will be hurt, Curry said.
He ventured that the boards could be hidden under a house while their captor(s) wait for things to cool off. Perhaps they were taken by someone who lives in a far-off town who has no respect for our island lifestyle. Deductive reasoning led him to think the boards might be sold for drug money.
Ambrose admits he has a “wild imagination,” and can envision all the 13 boards winding up on his yard one morning, no questions asked.
Even if any of the boards are returned, would it be worth it after they were tainted by the bad energy from those who stole them, he asked.
“I can make another. I can make 10 more, 30 more. They have to steal, if all they know how to do is steal,” he explained.
Thirteen boards in all have been stolen from his lot, 11 discovered missing on Nov. 30, and two in October. Following is a list of the missing boards and brief descriptions. Anyone with information can call Curry at 822-3926 or contact the Kauai Police Department at 241-1711.
– BASA logo, 9’6″, with a red bottom and flora print nose on deck and a broken fin box;
– HIC logo, green with floral bandwraps and spatter deck, with white, yellow and black pigment with the name “Jillian” on deck in large letters;
– Wellman 6’4″ tri-fin squashtail with a long scripture on the bottom;
– Estrada 6’2″ green with big “SOBE” laminate;
– Single-fin roundpin with Africa airbrush design behind the T & C sticker;
– 6’8″ round pintail;
– Blue tri-fin Delam deck;
– “Potato bug,” 6’4″ egg single-fin, widetail;
– “Happy Birthday” skimboard, 4’6″ with red, yellow and black written in ;
– Hubb bodyboard, orange with a white slick bottom.
Two other boards were stolen in October:
– Egg single fin, 5’4″ with a thin, concave bottom, with the words “Eat Impact” on the bottom and a “flat rock jester on the top; and
– Microtanker with the cartoon character Marvin the Martian on the deck with a “water dragon.”
