How a Lahaina mom gained a piece of her life back through a project to help fire survivors replace their surf boards
LAHAINA, Hawaii — Jud Lau knew better than anyone how important it was to get back in the ocean. How you don’t think about anything else when you’re sitting on a break, waiting for the perfect wave to arrive.
What does one do in the face of the unfathomable? The lives lost, traumatizing escapes, homes and livelihoods vanishing in an instant? She went to Lahainaluna High School, where Hawaiian royalty once attended, and she started surfing when she was 18, collecting boards along the way “Even though you’re out where sharks are and you could get pounded in a second, when you’re past the break, it just feels safe,” Gladden explained recently while holding Olivia on her hip as Kai chanted “mommy, mommy” in a singsong voice. “Like, peaceful.”
Gladden had been through wildfires before, so when she evacuated, she didn’t prepare to leave for good. She didn’t take the years’ worth of meticulously kept journals, which she wrote as guidebooks for her daughters. She didn’t take the free weights she had collected as part of her fitness journey. She didn’t take Brianna’s old baby blanket.
For example: It wasn’t until she was scrolling through Instagram one night when she saw Lau’s post about giving away surfboards to Lahaina fire survivors when she thought, “Oh crap. I had five boards.”The morning before Lahaina burned to the ground, before everyone on Maui realized how bad it was going to be, Lau was out on the north shore, surfing.
Lau threw himself into managing the project as survivors and their friends reached out for help. “I feel so thankful that there’s something that I have to offer,” he said. Donated boards may have wear and tear, but they can still serve surfers well. Custom boards are often made with the particular surfer in mind.into the board,” he said. A life force, an energy.
their old neighborhood. From the highway they could see the scorched remnants of trees and cars and the crumbling, blackened and gray walls that were once people’s homes.“Not everything. Look, the church looks nice,” Gladden reassured her.everythingAs they drove, Gladden’s sister called to say that sirens were blaring — another fire. Some 10 minutes later, Brianna’s phone finally buzzed with the alert. She read it out loud: “‘Evacuation order.’ Mommy, evacuate.
Gladden had heard a story about a preserved Bible in the wreckage. She wondered whether anything would be left at her house, even if it was just the ashes of her previous life. But the brushfire from before left the National Guard members spooked. They didn’t let her through; she needed to be on a list, they said.
She parked the car and began to cry. She felt deep gratitude that she had her children. But there were still parts of life that had felt like they were hers, and the universe that gave her so much had now taken so much. “Took my town. Took my school … everything I care about.”
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