Fierce Heart: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing Hardcover – 2 Jun. 2009

I went to Malaga in the sixties, it was flat as a pancake but beautiful anyway. Wish I was old enough to have read this book first. I read the equally fabulous “Eddie Would Go” by the same fine author as well

This was the first ever "surfing genre" type book I've ever read. Not one to pick up a surf mag and peruse around its pages, I think that I might be inclined to do so after reading this book. The descriptions of the people, the culture, and the surf events and daring rescues of the life guards made for quick reading that made me feel as if I were in Makaha enjoying the wonderful personalities and beautiful places Coleman describes. In surfing it seems art and life are fused on the moving canvas of the ocean. This book reiterates what is important in this life. It will make you laugh, and it will make you cry. I totally urge anyone who has even the remotest curiosity about surfing, Hawaii, and what is important in life to pick it up.

Stuart Holmes Coleman is a somewhat rare individual in today's modern hybrid `pop-culture' dominated Hawaiian society: a surfer who is also a gifted creative writer of appreciable note.Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Coleman completed his undergraduate degree in that state before relocating to Los Angeles and working briefly as an arts editor for an LA entertainment magazine. Thereafter he returned to the East Coast of the US and pursued a graduate degree in literature (creative writing) at American University.In 1993 Stuart moved to Hawaii, motivated by the other primary passion in his life, surfing. Once in the islands, he quickly became interested in Oahu's legendary Waimea Bay waterman Eddie Aikau and was inspired to begin writing a book about him. While working on his book, Coleman taught English at Honolulu's Punahou School, and later at Iolani School, befriending big-wave riders Fred Van Dyke and Peter Cole (also former Punahou faculty alumni) in the process.Upon undertaking his first book, Coleman was introduced by Cole and Van Dyke to the Aikau `ohana and many other important local Oahu figures, with whom he become good friends while conducting his researches. After completing three years of intensive work on Eddie Aikau's life, the book was finally published as `Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero'. This carefully composed and culturally balanced biography served to allow him to gain substantial access to Oahu's somewhat xenophobic West Coast culture after interviewing many of the locals in the Waianae area, and some years later he was able to further draw upon these contacts to begin a new book on the unique and often extraordinary Hawaiian people populating the Makaha area.As an epicenter of the resurgence of modern Hawaiian he'e nalu (surfing), the story of Makaha (which means `fierce' in Hawaiian) has been captured in an intriguing narrative that gives many empathetic insights into the nature of the diversely distinctive local Hawaiians who are residents on this part of Oahu. Figuring centrally in this book are the principal members of the Keaulana `ohana, among them patriarch Buffalo and his son Brian, as well as other noted local Hawaiians such as Iz Kamakawiwo'ole, and champion surfer and waterwoman Rell Kapolioka'ehukai Sunn.With this book, Stuart Coleman has accomplished what has been missing for decades: an empathetic and balanced examination of the core culture of one of Oahu's most important, yet highly convoluted local areas. He has also prepared a book that finally helps to honor the memory of Rell Sunn, widely known as `The Queen of Makaha' and perhaps one of the most extraordinary women ever to grace modern island culture. Although many younger Hawaiians may not today remember Auntie Rell and recognise the importance of her life as an exemplar of the traditional spirit of aloha, renown waterwoman, proponent of breast cancer awareness (she sadly succumbed to that disease herself in 1998), and extraordinarily inspired supporter of Hawaiian keiki (children), her compelling story has long deserved to be formally recorded. While not entirely about Rell, Coleman's new book on the fierce local Makaha culture that produced her is at least a starting point that may hopefully inspire a fuller chronicling of her story at some future date.Writing in a comfortable, highly readable and skillfully engaging manner, Stuart Coleman's passionate interest in he'e nalu culture and the sport of surfing has enabled him to develop portrayals of the central individuals in his book with awareness and keen insight that someone not intimately involved with surfing might not possess.Along with his first book on Eddie Aikau's life, Stuart's latest book, `FIERCE HEART', deserves to be read by all who are interested in the modern expressions of ancient Hawaiian culture and by those who wish greater understanding of the tragic loss of the sacred Hawaiian `aina (lands) to malihini (outside) interests, over the past one hundred and fifty years.As Coleman points out, although modern Makaha has a `rep' as a tough and turbulent local area, popularly characterised as being torn by domestic problems, plagued with rampant homelessness, devastating substance abuse excesses and frequent occasions of violence, Makaha's story is also a key to understanding both the clash of traditional Hawaiian cultural elements with modern outside influences and the nobler, more ancient values that are still honored and so admirably maintained by many of its residents.`FIERCE HEART: The Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing' definitely belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who appreciates and respects the uniquely rich cultural heritage of the Hawaiian Islands, next to Coleman's wonderful earlier work on the life of Eddie Aikau. Both of these books may be easily found at all internet book sellers, including Amazon.The only apparent deficiency associated with Coleman's books is unavoidably inherent and stems from the fact that he is a haole malihini (a white outsider, and a fairly recent arrival at that), whose racial ethnicity will effectively bar a fully congruent understanding of kanaka maoli culture (no matter how empathetic it may be). It is also apparent that Coleman's writing on Hawaii and the Hawaiians, like that of many other haoles who dream of and emulate an idyllic culture that is ultimately unattainable (by virtue of having white skin), is unavoidably partisan in the expression of its principal sentiments. It will be a substantial advancement when a local Hawaiian (kanaka maoli or kama'aina), rather than an empathetic outsider who by necessity observes and reports from the perspective of an external observer, finally rises to the task of analysing local Hawaiian culture from within.That having been stated, it is perhaps not overstating things to say that Coleman has come about as close to gauging the primal pulse of archetypal local Hawaiian culture with his two books as any recently arrived haole malihini has in decades. I highly recommend both of these books to all of you as useful (and enjoyable) reference, since there is really so little else available on modern Hawaiian local culture.Aloha mai e, Kalikiano....

Our son lives right on Makaha Beach the epicenter of this wonderful book! So happy I could find it! As they say in HawaiianMahalo!!

This book is a terrific series of profiles of legendary surfers -- Buffalo Keaulana and his son, Brian, Rell Sunn -- and musicians -- Israel Kamakawiwo'ole -- who hail from a west Oahu town far off the tourist track. It gives you a vivid sense of place and the people to whom Makaha belongs.