by Kevin Cody
Keoni Boyd moved from his native Hawaii to Hermosa Beach in 1983, and never returned home. In fact, he rarely left Hermosa’s, block square Cypress industrial district, where he airbrushed and repaired surfboards for four decades.
Keoni passed away of natural causes in February, at age 70. A paddleout in his menory was held Sunday, May 23, at the Hermosa pier.
Ian Mozian, a glosser at Shoreline Glassing in the early ‘80s, spoke at the paddleout of his first meeting with Keoni.
“We’d heard this star airbrusher from Hawaii was coming to work for us. But when we met him he was such a nice, humble person, he didn’t make much of an impression — until we saw his art. He was a massive talent,” Mozian said.
References to both Keoni’s talent and humbleness were a refrain in the remarks of everyone who spoke at the paddleout.
“I asked him to airbrush my new board so it would look like a balsa board. People who saw it would pick it up and ask if it was chambered because it was so light for a balsa board. They wouldn’t believe me when I said it was airbrushed,” Bobby Warcola said. “It was an honor to know him.”
Board builder Matt Calvani recalled when he hired Keoni that Keoni asked if he could sleep in the factory.
“My wife asked, how long is he going to stay. I said I didn’t know. He never left,” Calvani said.
Even as the Cypress surfboard district was gentrified with art galleries and entertainment venues, Keoni kept his doorway stool in front of a portable TV, next to his saw horses, watching cartoons and smoking between repairs.
An Easy Reader reporter asked him how long it took repairs to dry.
“As long as it takes to smoke a King Size Kool,” Keoni answered.
The reporter recounted his bewilderment at seeing Keoni tell a boy who brought in his board for a ding repair that if he was going to be a surfer, he needed to repair his own dings. And then he showed the boy how to do it.
Equally befuddling was his frequent refusal to accept payment for his airbrushing.
“He would accept beer, but it had to be Miller Lite. I brought him a case of Coors from Granny’s one time, and he made me take it back,” Warcola recalled.
One of the boards brought to the paddle out was airbrushed by Keoni with blue flames on a pink background, and a large, yellow hibiscus, Hawaii’s state flower. In the center of the hibiscus is a samurai and a japanese flag encircled with the name Miyata Surfboards. The board was shaped by Don Kadawaki, who was also at the paddleout. Wayne Miyata was a legendary surfboard shaper featured in the 1963 film, “Endless Summer,” and known for his closely guarded coloring techniques, which he shared with Kioni.
“Wayne was Keoni’s idol. He would always say, ‘This is the way Wayne taught me to do it,” recalled Cypress District board builder Jose Barahona. “When Miyata died in 2005, Keoni was devastated,” Barahona said.
Miyata’s daughter Tava, recalled the deep bond her father and Keoni shared during her remarks at the paddleout.
Granny’s owner Betty Gregorian, who is also an artist, was so impressed by Keoni’s art, she asked Shock Boxx gallery owner Mike Collins to host an exhibit of his work. Collins, who also attended the paddleout, said he readily agreed.
“We wanted to be sensitive to what was here before,” he said in reference to the district’s surfboard factories, “And no one had been here longer than Keoni.”
Keoni learned to surf in Kailua, on the windward side of Oahu, on alaias, which are thin, wooden surfboards with no fins.
But they weren’t really surfboards. They were green fence planks he and his friends stole from neighbors’ yards.
The first recognition of his artistic talent was at Pearl High School when he spray painted a big wave in a school stairwell. The following day, when called to the principal’s office, he expected to be punished. Instead, the principal asked if it was okay with him if the school kept the mural.
Jani Lange said at the paddleout that Keoni’s board art gave off a protective vibe.
“If you rode one of his boards no one would mess with you because they knew you knew Keoni,” Lange said.
Former Granny’s owner Andre Klaser said at the paddleout he visited Keoni the day before he died.
“He was watching cartoons and completely at peace. He said, ‘I need to be with Wayne.’” ER
