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During the 1970's , Mother Maui provided its renegade, hippy, outlaw, surfer, Hawaiian poet, escapees a spectacular canvas to think, experiment, and create totally outside of the normal world back then. In 1971 when Jimi Hendrix filmed "Rainbow Bridge" on Maui the island was unknown to most people. By 1984 it was the hip place for the rich and famous to hang and old Maui was fading away into history.

As the island began to change from "old Maui" to "Mauiland", I rode the beautiful old Maui wave and took photos just ahead of the whitewater of progress that would wash up as today's "Mauiland". They paved paradise and put up lots of parking lots, hotels and swinging hot spots just like Joni Mitchells song.

The books tales and photos are unique vignettes from our weird and wonderful trip on Maui far from most people's reality at that time. The photographs were my attempt to portray the culture, people, history, and unreal beauty surrounding me back then. I wonder what the zillions of instagramy pictures will tell future generations about our digital life today?

I left Hana in 1989 to chase the brass ring and dragged these images and tales from closet to closet into the digital age. Ironically, the digital age is allowing me to create and share these images in a way I couldn't imagine when the photos were taken. Film photography is a real bitch compared to the digital imaging of today. While some of the photos have been featured in magazines, coffee table books, newspapers, exhibited in art galleries, and won critical acclaim, many have never been published.

The best part of the digital age is it lets me easily share my tales and images with a huge audience around the planet. The subway rider in NY, student in Beijing, or retro hipster in Europe can now trip out to Maui during its golden age 40 to 50 years ago on their digital screen. This is an authentic slice of local life from a era that is now long gone and mostly myth. These are NOT the slick, well branded stories created to market Mauiland.

I have been working on this Maui Tales book for a long time and hope to find a publisher while I still can. The 6 chapters and 22 "Maui Tales" in the book capture a young generation searching for a different, better, way of living. I tried to tell the tales from the viewpoint I had back when these photos were taken and the stories were fresh. That's not easy due to the brain damage and rose colored glasses of age. Good thing I took 1000's of photos of those days that shakes my tree and reminds me of what life was really like, good times and bad.

These photos and tales capture parts of our everyday life, which back then seemed pretty radical. Yet, many of the new fringe concepts and lifestyles we explored during that time are now common to today's 20 something generation. Self sustainability, surfing, cultural identity, the environment, Hobbits, weed, and Maui itself have been mashed up into today's media driven, consumer society. Maybe these tales will inspire a few people to question their own ideas of normal and explore different ways of living in today's crazy reality.

Make sure you check out the links to articles and features published about these tales that keep them alive.

Maui Tales is about chasing dreams, taking risk, over coming challenges, and exploring the cutting edge of creativity. So take a break from the madness and trip back to life on Old Maui in the 1970's . Young or old , I guarantee these Maui Tales and images will blow your mind and leave you smiling.....enjoy!