As Vene Chun guided his Hawaiian canoe to shore past tourists learning to surf at one of Maui’s public beaches, his thoughts were a jumble.
He had just come from spreading ashes at sea with a family devastated by the fire that scorched the town of Lahaina farther west. For days, he and his outrigger canoe were right there, too, bringing food, water, whatever survivors needed.
And the surfers? Chun, 52, stood beside his canoe in a grassy park 32 kilometers from the ashen disaster wearing a wreath reflecting his Native Hawaiian roots. Somehow, the flopping beginners on longboards made him smile.