For more than five decades, Stan Lawrence has been “Stan the Man” in the Big Island surfing community.
He’s been a high-level competitive amateur surfer with dozens of trophies — none for mere participation. He’s also been a competition founder and organizer, first helping Hawaii County Parks and Recreation with the annual 4th of July Drainpipe Classic in Kalapana, later founding and organizing the Big Island Pro Am Surfing Trials, sending the winners to Oahu to compete in Triple Crown events.
He’s a surfboard designer, shaper and glasser — and with his wife, Maud, he started Orchid Land Surf Shop, Hilo’s first surf shop, which is still in business almost 53 years later.
And for decades, he’s been the voice of surf reports on the radio, at first for the former KHLO-AM and from 1984 to today, on KWXX-FM and B97/B93.
On the cusp of his 77th birthday, Lawrence is still a member of dawn patrol, rising early to secure his spot in the lineup when waves are breaking at Honolii and other East Hawaii beaches.
From 1972 to 1990, when lava from Kilauea volcano overran the Kalapana black sand beaches — taking much of the uniquely Hawaiian village with it — he and others would make the 45-minute drive from Hilo to Drainpipe on an almost daily basis.
This, and many other remembrances of cherished erstwhile lower Puna surf spots are chronicled in Lawrence’s new book, “Kalapana: Reflections of Lost Waves.”
Illustrated with art by Tom Rissacher and Nelson Makua, plus countless photos taken of and by local surfers, chapters are stories penned by Lawrence and others, including Rissacher, Bob Duerr, Jerry Johnson, Stephen Skipper, Allen Gourley, Henry Hauser, Leigh Sharp, Carl Higgins, Brian Reimer, Ernie Kho and Mark Dougherty.
“The reason I wrote the book was because it was a huge loss to the community — all of those families who were displaced, many historic areas that were taken,” Lawrence told the Tribune-Herald. “Losing surf spots, especially losing all of those around Kalapana, is like losing a lifestyle. We lost a lifestyle down there.
“There is a Kalapana community now that is different; it’s not the same.”
Lawrence, a Santa Monica, Calif., native who cut his teeth on the waves at Malibu, began his Hawaii odyssey on Oahu’s North Shore, where he financed his surf habit with three part-time jobs — feeding ponies and shoveling manure at Cannon Pony Farm in Haleiwa, bagging groceries and sweeping floors at Haleiwa Natural Health Food Store, and driving a taxicab three nights a week in Honolulu.
“When I was up on the North Shore, my whole purpose in life was surfing. I started making boards for myself up there,” he said. “My friend Peter Trombly was a board builder, and I’d watch and learn from him. Then, I got my own blank, and I shaped it and glassed it — and it rode pretty darn good. So, I made a few for myself.
“Then, I was on the mainland for a bit, and I took one of my boards to a friend who had a surf shop in the San Fernando Valley, Ernie Tanaka. He was a personal friend, so I said, ‘Ernie, I want you to critique this board.’ And he looked at it and said, ‘Ah, this is pretty damn good.’
“That gave me inspiration, because I knew what I was doing and I could make a decent board.”
Stan and Maud opened Orchid Land Surf Shop in 1972 at 832 Kilauea Ave. and in 1998 moved to their current location, 262 Kamehameha Ave.
Lawrence still sells surfboards he shaped and glassed. In addition, the shop features custom surfboards by others among Hawaii’s top shapers and also stocks body boards and surf apparel, as well as aloha shirts, mainly the type that look good with board shorts.
“For me, it’s not about making a lot of money,” he said. “It’s all about the friends that you meet and the experiences. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
With Kalapana gone since 1990 and Pohoiki inundated in 2018, Lawrence said its time for government officials to get behind the idea of making new coral reefs at accessible locations along East Hawaii’s coastline.
‘There’s a way to grow corals now that’s five times as fast as normal,” he said. “It’s called microfragmentation. It’s not that new. At UH-Hilo, they have a great marine science program. They could monitor the reef. It could be a part of their curriculum.
“Coral reefs give out more oxygen per cubic inch than trees do, and that’s mitigating global warming. And if you have a reef in the ocean, it’s going to preserve the coastline for shoreline protection, and it’s a habitat for juvenile fish. Another benefit is needed recreation. Every day at Honolii, there’s injuries, there’s arguments and fights because it’s overcrowded. We do really need more surf spots.”
Lawrence used the example of Palm Beach, a northern suburb of Sydney, Australia. The reef there was manufactured by microfragmentation, which Lawrence described as “breaking living coral into small pieces and putting them on a rock foundation.”
“You start with a rock foundation and then seed them with the pieces of coral,” he said. “It’s like seedlings when you’re growing vegetables or whatever. It’s been a breakthrough for coral reef restoration. That’s my next big project. That’s my dream, to build an ocean park, because we lost so much down in Kalapana. The problem with doing it down there is it’s still unstable land. It’s really hard to do a project and throw money into a project that could get covered by lava.
“In Australia, they know the value of surfing. It’s a national sport for Australia. You’d think it would be in Hawaii. Here, getting the permits would be hard. You pretty much need a permit to blow your nose. And that’s one of the biggest problems, all of the permitting. So, what we need are people in government who could try to push this through and facilitate this project.
“(Former Mayor) Billy Kenoi was behind it, but unfortunately, Billy passed away way too soon.”
Lawrence’s book is available at Orchid Land Surf Shop and most local bookstores.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
