HANAPEPE — As Elephit Skate-N-Surf Shop roars on with its recently opened second shop in Hanapepe, Kaua‘i’s growing skate scene shows no sign of stopping.
Elephit began as a concept in 2012, after Sean McCrink found a laptop in a bush with Photoshop on it and began using the software for fun.
“I came up with a piece called Elephit,” McCrink said. “I just took an elephant’s head and put it on a suit.”
From there, Sean had an idea — he would create a clothing brand where proceeds would go toward saving elephants. He opened a skate shop in Kapa‘a with a friend of his in 2014. However, their business relationship ended about a year later, forcing McCrink to downsize his storefront to a shipping container in Anahola.
McCrink described how business was tough during this period.
“There was no skate scene here at the time,” he said. “Our park was super crusty in Kapa‘a, so I was barely selling boards, but at least still had a skate shop on island.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, McCrink was able to move to a storefront in Kapa‘a. Later that year, Kaua‘i’s first concrete skate park opened down the street from Elephit, leading to a boom in Kaua‘i’s skate scene — and a boom in business for McCrink.
“It was like a whole different world of kids started skating,” he said. “A whole different group of kids came out of nowhere that I’d never met before … there’s probably 200 kids now skating that wouldn’t have ever skated.”
As more youths found their passion in skateboarding, McCrink’s mission slowly shifted from helping elephants overseas to the skaters that filled his shop.
“Now the elephits are the little kids — little misfits in town,” he said. “And it just kind of stuck.”
To meet the rapid growth of Kaua‘i’s skate culture, McCrink has since added an additional two floors to the Kapa‘a store, setting up safe and responsible gathering spaces for island youths.
“It’s super inspiring,” said Dylan Jaeb, a 19-year-old skater from Kaua‘i who’s known McCrink for over a decade and has since received sponsorships for his skateboarding. “Kids now out there have someone to go to and ask questions, trying to figure out what they want to do with their skating — and if it isn’t in skating, like, how to meet the right people.”
As the responsibility of keeping the island’s skaters out of trouble fell into McCrink’s lap, he’s since grown to enjoy mentoring them.
“I didn’t know I was a counselor,” he said. “I thought I was just a graphic artist.”
Kelsey Kerwin, owner of Hanapepe’s Electric Ocean Salon, McCrink’s fiancee and business partner, and longtime skater, explained how skateboarding can provide a healthy outlet for kids and adolescents, despite the activity’s stigmatization.
“I know that skating is kind of looked down upon, especially from older generations,” she said. “They look at it like they’re a bunch of hooligans that don’t have any respect, and they’re gonna just tear things up and graffiti and do drugs and all of that.”
“But I think the way it’s grown so much, there’s a lot of people in it now, like Dylan, they see all those older people that were like that — all the guys that burned out young. So, I think a lot of the up-and-coming new skate generation is all about being as athletic and sharp-minded as you can, and that’s without alcohol and drugs.”
For McCrink, the pitfalls of substance abuse hit home.
“My upbringing was that punk rock misfit, bent out of shape society, anarchy, whatever it was that we were on,” he said. “The long-term effects of that ended up with half my friends in prison or in jail, going down a road and thinking they could come back from it — and then still addicted to drugs and alcohol and escapism, if they didn’t end up with jail time.
While McCrink’s firsthand experiences with poor decision-making once threatened to ruin his life, they now drive him to ensure today’s youths don’t make the same mistakes.
“What I want to do is kind of dodge that whole derailment for these kids, because once you go down that road, it’s hard to come back,” he said.
To provide kids with an outlet, McCrink allows kids to use his shops’ printmaking tools, upcycling clothes and creating designs of their own. Through this, he wants to teach the island’s skaters there are more ways for them to find success in skateboarding than actually skating.
“Not everybody’s going to go pro,” he said. “In fact, it’s such a very small percentage — but you can still have a part of the business for life, you can still be a part of it, and that’s what I’m trying to teach. When you hit 18, it’s not like, ‘Oh, skateboarding is over because I didn’t make it.’ You can still skate and have fun with it, and create with it, and just find an avenue in it where you’re still involved.”
On March 4, Elephit opened its second Kaua‘i location in Hanapepe, sharing a space with Kerwin’s Electric Ocean Salon and bringing McCrink’s positive spin on skate culture to the West Side.
The store’s opening was a rousing success, bringing both eastside and westside skaters out to show off their skills. Even Mayor Derek S.K. Kawamami came to cut the ceremonial ribbon, with a few lucky skaters getting to ollie over his head.
Kawakami also spoke to the crowd, announcing that the county is working to open a new skate park on the westside — suggesting Kaua‘i’s rise as a skate hub is only just beginning.
“It’s like they’re coming out of the woodworks,” Kerwin said. “It’s so cool. It’s really inspiring to see that they’re actually here, and they’re waiting for it — they’re craving it. So, the faster we can have a park built, the more beneficial it’s going to be to the whole community.”
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Jackson Healy, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-4966 or jhealy@thegardenisland.com.
No mention of Kauai Skate Ohana?