Hawaiian Fire - Cassidy's Blog

    Aloha Monday everyone! Hope you all have been scoring some waves with the non stop swells we have been having on the South Shore! Sounds like it's going to be a great summer. This week on Aloha Monday John's daughter Cassidy wanted to get in on some of the blogging action.  (Which I recommend trying...come on guys be a guest blogger, we would seriously love to hear from you!) Things are good in the world of Hawaiian Fire and we will be back again next week with a fresh blog chock full of HF updates. Take a look at what Cass has to say and we will see you all back here next Monday. Aloha from the entire Hawaiian Fire Crew!

                                                           Cassidy's Blog

Aloha!

      My name is Cassidy Pregil and I am the 11 year old daughter of John Pregil, Jr. who is one of the owners of Hawaiian Fire. While growing up with HF, I have gotten the opportunity to experience the company at their best as well as getting that awesome surfing experience that is guaranteed for each and every tour. At HF, there is never a dull moment. Whether it’s getting visitors from North Carolina or hanging out at HF picnics, no one leaves without a smile on their face and a bunch of lasting memories. I’d say that of all my earliest memories of HF, my favorites involve tagging along with my mom and dad to the beach almost every day before I started school and catching my first wave at the age of 5. What I love most about the whole setup of HF would have to be the location. Kalaeloa is an awesome, fun-filled surf spot that’s perfect for beginners. There’s friendly waves, beautiful view and sun shiny weather. What more could anyone ask for? I’d have to say I caught most of the best waves of my life right there at HF beach. Like when Surf Camp came last summer and there was that HUGE swell and just recently, when I caught 2 one minute rides which seemed longer than football fields and they were taller than me! My experience with Hawaiian Fire has been great and it’s still going! My dad tells me that I don’t know how lucky I am! HF is the most down to earth, friendliest and most dependable company with the greatest service. No matter where you’re from, how you speak or how good you are at surfing, HF is the place for you! Aloha, Cassidy

Hawaiian Fire Inc.-Yes, we suck at Aloha Monday...

Aloha gang!

  Here we are on a Wednesday and no new blo

g. I know I know all of you are extremely disappointed and clinging on the edge of you

r seat. We'll be working on a new one with some prett

y pictures but the Summer is in full swing and that's all we have to say about that. Just some quick updates here and well have a bright shiny new Aloha Monday up for you viewing pleasure as soon as all the waves are gone on the S

outh Shore....oops I mean when we are not so busy

 um...working hard. 

*Kevin and Wisa - Hmm....what else but busting @$$ pumping out the latest HF Styles, new websites, coffee orders, inventory, shop upgrades, fire station, wedding planning, umm pretty much anything you can think of they are doing. Takes some serious Love to keep a business running. Luckily there is no shortage of that coming from both of them.

*Ryan - After six years at 3316 Campbell Ave I have finally moved further than 5 feet away from HF Headquarters. A lot of memories, good times and cheap rent. But change is a good thing and I can vouch for that as I type this on my lanai without the sound of busses, non stop traffic and a great view of the waves from my living room. My dog Nami looked at me and pretty much said the other day "It's about damn time!".  I'm just now moved in so Pictures and more details to follow. Pictured below is one change that is not welcomed. :-( (Nobody was hurt. If you have a red truck and had some boxes fly out on Fort Weaver and you kept driving I have one word for you..."KARMA!")

*HF Headquarters - New things are coming in everyday and the aroma of coffee never gets old these days. We've got some new girls styles pictured below with much more to come

. Get ready for the HF Grand Reopening this summer!

 

*Da Beach - The waves have been "ALL TIME" for the past two weeks. This has been the best summer of South Swells so far and we are hoping for more to come. Thank God for that outer reef that breaks down the big stuff so all you first timers dont have to worry about any rogue waves wiping ya'll out. But what you do need to worry about is riding on to the beach. We have repaired more boards in the last two weeks than we have in the past two years. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GUYS. DON'T RIDE YOUR BOARDS ONTO THE BEACH!!! Other than the board injuries we have had full groups and some great people coming through the school. Keep 'em coming Trip Advisor! That's all for now guys. Keep surfing and if you have no surf then get your butt's out to Hawaii. Prices are cheap and deals can be found everywhere!

(That's one of our first time students on his first day!!....no not really but many barrels like this and bigger could be found at Ala Moana Bowls last week.)

Hawaiian Fire Inc-What can we say it's summer time?!?

Aloha Gang!

  Hope everyone is having a great start to the summer. As you can guess we are starting to get nuts down at the beach and shop so why not take this week and review some of the past Aloha Monday's you may have missed. There some great stories and pictures if you check it out. We will be back next Monday we promise! Aloha to everyone from the entire HF Crew!! Stay safe this summer and come check out some Hawaiian Fire Joe Coffee and see what's new at HF Headquarters!!

Hawaiian Fire - Concert at Next Door and More

What's up Gang!

If any of you think that the week goes by too slow.....Start an Aloha Monday Blog. I seriously can't believe how it seems like we post a blog and then the next day is Monday already?? Oh... maybe because we post on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! No matter what, it sure seems like time just flies by as you get a bit older.

So the surf school is starting to pick up again and we have already had three 3rd tours and it's only June 2nd. Gotta love getting customers from word of mouth! Thanks to all of you who have surfed with us and went home to tell your friends about us. We are getting almost 80% of our customers this way compared to the first 5 years in business by getting most of them from the hotel concierge. We love keeping the classes relatively small (usually no more than 14 in a class) because we can give such better service this way. And with better service comes happier customers. And with happier customers.....well that just means happier customers which makes me happy as an owner!!

Fire Fighter / Surf Instructor Marc Hino is probably excited about the long awaited opening of their new station at Mo`ili`ili. Gone are the days of having dinner on the apparatus floor and going to bed in their trailer park-like accommodations.

This past weekend was pretty cool because Wisa found out that one of my favorite musicians (Amos Lee) was in town and hooked us up with some tickets to go check him out at this club Next Door. If you haven't heard this boy sing you're missing out on something pretty special.

Lastly, if you haven't been to Diamond Head Yoga right next to our headquarters on Campbell Ave., right now is the time to go. They have wonderful instructors daily that teach Pilates and a variety of Yoga. They are doing a special where you pay $20 and you get a week of unlimited classes. Seriously, it's a great deal. Ryan, Wisa and Kira have already checked it out and have had classes all to themselves!

Ok everyone! We hope you're staying cool in this hot weather. Until next time....

Aloha!

Hawaiian Fire-Not Just Your Average Joe

Hawaiian Fire Joe Kickoff Event/Diamond Head Yoga Grand Opening Summer 2009:

Before any of this I just wanted to start out by congratulating some of the summer fun crew's college graduations. If I forgot one of you guys then....you should be on our Facebook Page with some updates or something! Ronson Gyler Rolf is a named destined for big things. Nice job bro and hope to see you around the islands. Kealaonapua O'sullivan always has a place at Hawaiian Fire and comes back to the islands with a degree from CSULB. Well done guys. Hope you kept in shape so you can paddle around some surfers this summer!


Aloha....let's see what day is it ah yes Wednesday everybody! What can we say? We just like to keep everyone in suspense. Hopefully everyone out there had a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend. Always known as the unofficial start of Summer, students are graduating, temperatures are rising, and its getting a bit harder to make a last minute reservation with us at the Surf School! (HF Hint: please book early so you can make sure you get a spot!!) With everything getting ready to shift to full Summer mode Kevin, Wisa, and I along with our neighbors at Diamond Head Yoga thought it would be a perfect time to bring everyone in the neighborhood together to get some good Summer vibes flowing through Kapahulu. Randal and Mike had their Grand Opening at Diamond Head yoga right next door to HF Headquarters. If you are a local or even just visiting and looking for a great spot with a diverse selection of Yoga classes and some unreal style Diamond Head Yoga has classes going on now! A little further down the street we launched the availibilty of Hawaiian Fire Joe Waialua Blend Coffee in the form of a pretty cool block party. We mentioned this happening in the last Aloha Monday and that was basically when the inception of that idea even occurred. The boys next door put in some serious hours and we all came together at HF to put some finishing touches on things and by the time 6:00pm on Friday came along, Kani Pa'a had set up stage at Headquarters and the coffee/sounds were both flowing smoothly. Speaking of smooth....Kevin and Wisa put this project together and did an unbelievable job. Ever since I first arrived on Oahu about 6 years ago I always heard Kev mention that he wanted to have his own coffee. An idea that was destined for the eternal back burner finally ignited in a matter of months in the form of some seriously aromatic and fresh roasted coffee that is way better than that 10 gallon bucket of freeze dried stuff in your fridge. We all live in Hawaii so we figure lets at least get some coffee that has a little Aloha in it right? If you don't live here wouldn't you be stoked to wake up when its snowing out next winter and take a smell of coffee and get that flashback of your trip to Hawaii when you were riding that wave with us? Next time you are around the shop just cruise by and check it out for yourself. Right now we offer the Original Waialua Blend as well as the Vanilla Macadamia Nut flavor. 5oz for $5.00 10oz for $9.50. We will usually have a pot brewed in the office too if you time it right!

Alright I started to sound a bit like the guy for Sham-Wow there for a second but I can't help it. The coffee is good, ya gotta try it. So with the coffee samples set up, Kani Pa'a was rocking and more and more people showed up to form a serious party on Campbell Ave. There had to have been at least 200+ people that came through the Yoga Studio and Hawaiian Fire that night. Of course we had to offer a choice of beverages at the party so if you got back to the VIP Yard Lounge you may or may not have found the Wine/Pupu Sampling Station. We were stoked to see some old faces from Hawaiian Fire along with some new neighborhood friends. The longer the night went on the more word spread and the more crowded it got. Luckily the vibe was very mellow and everbody around the place was having fun. Especially Nami who's tail you may have seen wagging like a periscope on a submarine amongst the crowds. There was some great energy that night with a lot of Aloha going around block. We even had the company of the great Michael or Ozz Neubauer from Maui. Ozz is the man usually behind the camera or computer morphing together some creatives ideas to make Hawaiian Fire look the way it does. Thanks Ozz! Making the trip turned out to be well worth it for him too. DH Yoga held the raffle that night and who else won a Wade Tokoro surfboard but good ole Ozz! Now its just time to enter the Pipe Masters with that bad boy next year bro! The raffle took place around 8:30 which was when we were thinking people would start to disperse a bit but it kept going strong until close to 11:00pm! Big Mahalos to HPD for being cool! Little by little people started to take off until finally there just a few of us. We somehow managed to pull it all together after then fun and put in a solid clean up effort before passing out that night. Good teamwork guys! The only bummer is I wish so much that we had recorded the best part of the night haha... While cleaning up a Nami induced beverage spill with some Paper Towels, Kevin was inspired to Rap about it. Kev held the "Papah Towels" beat I rocked the freestyle with Wisa and Chessa the lead dancers. You just might hear that song on the Top 40 someday. I'm wondering if the wine sampling station had anything to do with that sudden flash of musical creativity. Either way it was hilarious but it was more of one of those you had to be there why did you just waste minutes of my life telling me this story kind of events. Maybe you can catch an encore at our Grand Re-Opening later this summer!

Extra Mahalos to Uncle Bo's Pupu Bar and Restaurant, Nikki's Vietnamese Cafe, Island Triathalon & Bike and Beyond Limits Car Audio and Detailing for donating prizes and food to the event. Everybody that helped put this together helped make it a super fun and memorable night for everybody there. If you didn't make it for this one the make sure to stay in touch for details on the next Party. Follow us on Twitter or be a Fan on Facebook so you can make sure you get the invitation!! Until next Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday...Aloha to everyone out there from the entire Hawaiian Fire Crew. We Hope to see as many of you this summer as possible in the water and at the shop. Come stop by 3318 Campbell Ave anytime the door is open and the lights are on and check us out!

Hawaiian Fire-New Kids on the Block...well kind of.

Aloha Gang!


It's Monday once again and we have got a lot going on these days around Campbell Ave. (That's the street HF Headquarters is on in case you didn't know). When I moved here in 2003 this shop was a skeleton and it took countless hours and numerous plate lunches to get it to where it is today. From losing a few extra brain cells resurfacing the floors, (luckily I missed that part thanks for taking one for the team Kev!) to repainting the entire inside and outside of the shop. Yes it may sound cliche but there has literally been a lot of blood, sweat and tears that have gone into Hawaiian Fire and we are not done yet. Within the last year we have had a couple newer additions to our community of businesses in good ole' Kapahulu. Once known as a not so desireable part of Hawaii is looking a whole lot cleaner and stylish these days and a lot of good vibes are resonating through the neighborhood. Like we said last week we are still working on a Grand Re-Opening for Hawaiian Fire and even had a nice little lifestyle photo shoot the other day but in the meantime guys from Diamond Head Yoga have been putting in some overtime to totally revamp the once empty storage room of Shiny Floors and turn it into a stylish, peaceful yoga studio. Props to you guys Randall and Mikey! The place looks unreal and is just now getting the finishing touches to be ready for everyone to come have a look see this Friday bewtween 6pm and 9pm for their Grand Opening/ Our Kapahulu Block Party. Diamond Head Yoga will offer a variety of classes at many different times to suit everyones style of yoga or meditation and budget. Along with Diamond Head Yoga and Hawaiian Fire having their doors open, Beyond Limits Auto Detailing and Sound Systems will be participating as well. We have all banded together and will be having some giveaways, great music, and good times. Our goal of course is to bring new people to our businesses but more so to help bring the small community of Kapahulu together. Hawaii is known for its Aloha Spirit and we want everyone around us to know that we are trying to work together as small business owners, friends, neighbors and ohana to live and work together and support each other. Sorry to get all Mr. Rogers on you guys right there but we like to think that all of us being around can help positively influence the surrounding environment we all live in.

In addition to all of the blockparty festivities, this Friday will also be the unveling of Hawaiian Fire Joe! Sorry ladies we won't be unveiling Joe Toro (although he may be single) but instead we're talking about a cup of Joe. Kevin and Wisa have been grinding out countless projects and this one has finally come together after years of talking about it. If you are familiar with a firestation there is a thing called the Staple fund. Staples like milk, juice, cookie dough ice cream...and of course coffee! When you live in paradise and have some of the best coffee in the world right in your own backyard it's a shame to be cracking open a tin of imported freeze dried stuff from somewhere other than Hawaii. Whether you live in Hawaii and want nothing but home grown quality products or you live on the other side of the world and want to wake up and have a taste of Hawaii every morning, Hawaiian Fire Joe brings it to you. Available in either our Vanilla Macadamia Nut or Waialua Blend which both bring you a blend of the North Shore's finest stuff. Along with some live music we will have a fresh pot of Hawaiian Fire Joe ready for some sampling and of course available for purchase.(Bring your own cups if you want to stay "Green" :-)) We just got this stuff in last week and you can't help but want a cup of Hawaiian Fire Joe once you step in the shop and fall in love with the smell. I have never had a cup of coffee in my life until today and I'm glad I waited for the right cup to come my way. I might not be much of a coffee connoisseur but I can safely say that without any additives or sweetners this stuff goes down smooth and tastes great.

We will be sure to keep you updated on the Hawaiian Fire Grand Re-Opening this summer but until then we hope to see everyone that can make it to the Block Party this Friday from 6-9pm and then maybe finish up with some Pau Hana Drinks and/or Pupu's across the street at Uncle Bo's! Aloha everybody and look for Hawaiian Fire Joe avaliable via internet SOON at www.hfjoe.com.

Hawaiian Fire's - Random Happenings

First of all...happy birthday JOHN PREGIL who is celebrating his, um, thirty-something birthday tomorrow!



Hawaiian Fire Headquarters' Re-Grand Opening is tentatively set for the first week of July, with some wine, good friends and some live music! Sound good or what? We think so, so that is what we are currently working on as we speak. Wisa has been hard at work filling in shifts for the shop, re-vamping the look, and ordering all kinds of new merchandise so we can offer our customers more product that they all have been demanding for some time now. Thanks to all of the employees who have worked hard at tagging, folding, organizing, and displaying the new merchandise. Also, thanks to Ryan for setting up the Facebook page for Hawaiian Fire.......Looks good bro! As we get closer to the middle of June we will send out a bunch of invites to the Re-opening. We hope to see a bunch of you there!!





Side notes:



Sean Kelly will post a blog before years end... I promise. All that marathon training has kept him so busy!



Keala will be graduating from college very soon and we're looking forward to having her back on Oahu! We have yet to hear from the rest of the summer crew that we miss down at the beach...Ronson, Ethan, Hallie, Alyssa...



Erica is trying to get into some Fire Department job in Antarctica! Good luck to you miss Erica but if you get it we'll miss your grace at the beach. You are our only female FF instructor and oh so valuable.

Marc is probably in Cabo San Lucas right now, surfing and drinking Corona's and wearing Vertra of course!

Wisa will stop stressing about the wedding as soon as Kevin helps her out a little. (Take it easy it's at a winery so everybody will be drunk anyway!)





Ryan will find a new place to live before December (maybe) but he sure has seen quite a few homes around the island.





Wailana's customer service is getting great, but she will fall down at least once if she goes out and parties a little too much. Right Wailana?





Other than that we will keep you posted on the party and we hope all of you have a great week.





Thanks for reading





Aloha


HF Crew