The Backpacker Intern

Mahalo Hawaiian Surf Adventures

After my diving internship at Oceans 5 Dive I got hooked up at Hawaiian Surf Adventures. The perfect mix of everything I like. Learn new skills, generate ideas and get to know new people.

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Lisa and Trace (next to me on the left side) are the founders of Hawaiian Surf Adventures. A great couple that loves thrills and to give people the best experiences on Hawaii. During my 3 days I helped them out with their marketing and branding. If you are running your own business it can be difficult to keep a clear vision of what you are doing. I’m honest and looking from a fresh perspective. So I wrote down my thoughts and ideas and made a business plan for improvement. I cannot share everything, but here is some of the stuff I came up with:

The name of their brand is ‘Hawaiian Surf Adventures’. They started as a surf school but now they are organizing more tours, such as ‘Stand Up Paddle’, ‘Canoe Tour’ and very soon a new thrill ride with a ‘Navy Seal RIB-boat’. That doesn’t really fit with their original name. So I started thinking and wrote down some new names. While I was sitting in their shop I saw one of the hats they sell.

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Suddenly I saw a solution. You can see the icon of a guy standing between ‘surf’ and ‘adventures’. You can interpret that as an ‘&’-sign. Their new name will then be ‘Hawaiian Surf & Adventures’. An umbrella for all their tours. It gives perspective and possibilities for future tours as well. Plus you can still keep your logo/merchandise/artwork. Simple, but effective. They loved it so much that they bought the URL and started to use this name in their different forms of communication.

I said I was honest so I told them that their logo could use an upgrade. One of my former colleagues from LEMZ is typography/design talent Daan Kars. I asked him if he could help us out. Daan offered to make a new logo for free! I wrote a briefing and discussed it with Daan. It’s still in progress but here is one of the logo’s he came up with. Thanks a lot dude!

Schermafbeelding 2014-03-27 om 23.21.37As Lisa said when I arrived at the office: “You should do all of our tours to know what we are all about.”. Well, I did. I could never imagine that I would be surfing, stand up paddling and canoeing as part of my job. Surfing was what I expected: addictive and awesome. The teachers helped us rookies out to get some neat first waves.

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The best way to tell you guys about my first impression of Stand Up Paddling is by watching these 4 seconds on YouTube. But after trying it by myself it’s actually pretty cool. And a good workout. Okay, for once then. It’s just not my thing. I prefer surfing waves, or the interwebz.

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Tour number three is their top-selling adventure. For a reason. During the Double-hull Hawaiian Canoe tour, we learned how to work as a team to get the canoe in full-speed. The tour guide, Nobie, a 12th generation Hawaiian boat builder, is a walking (or floating) encyclopaedia. He knows all about the islands history, geology, culture and happens to make good jokes as well.

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On my last day Trace invited me to experience their upcoming tour. A thrill ride with a Navy Seal RIB-boat. This baby just owns the waves. It’s safe for kids and dogs as well. As you can see on the picture below. We all survived. (note: this is the ‘before’-picture).

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On my last day they gave me a goodie bag with some Hawaiian sweetness and this gift card. Lisa, Trace and the whole Hawaiian Surf & Adventures crew, thanks for this great experience. Mahalo!

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I’ll be back.

One thought on “Mahalo Hawaiian Surf Adventures

  1. Pingback: One Hell of a Ride at Wakelake Bratislava

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