Kaua‘i’s Kyle Ramey and Jesse Merle-Jones won their heats yesterday and 10 Hawai‘i surfers are still surfing strong at the Go211 LIVE Honda U.S. Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach, Calif.

Surfing the 3- to 4-foot waves, Ramey, of Po‘ipu, won Heat 17 of Round 2, with a score of 15.70, edging out Roy Powers of Hanalei (14.50). Powers still advances to the next round with his second-place finish.

Kilauea’s Jesse Merle-Jones won his heat yesterday over an international field. Merle-Jones (15.17) defeated Florida’s Gabe Kling (14.43), New Zealand’s Jay Quinn (14.34) and fellow Hawai‘i surfer Gavin Beschen (9.80).

Maui’s Kevin Sullivan, Ian Walsh and Kieran Horn were the other Hawai‘i surfers to win their heats. Others who are still in the competition are Ola Eleogram, Torry Meister, Kiron Jabour and Dusty Payne.

Meister, of Kona, was involved in one of the more exciting heats of the day yesterday, surfing against Brazil’s Jadson Andre (see full story on today’s Surf page on B2.) Both scored consistently high scores battling out for the lead.

Hawai‘i’s Tonino Benson and Casey Brown also competed yesterday, but did not finish in the top two of their heats and therefore did not qualify for the next rounds.

Hawai‘i’s Megan Abubo of Hale‘iwa and Melanie Bartel’s of Makaha remain in the U.S. Women’s Open, also at Huntington Beach. That competition should see three rounds of surfing going off today.

(Source: Lanaly Cabalo, Kauai Garden Island News)

A mini-surge of candidates filed to run for a seat on the Kaua‘i County Council just hours before the deadline lapsed yesterday at the Historic County Building.

The field for the Sept. 20 primary and Nov. 4 general election is now set.

Three incumbents are not seeking reelection to the council and all seven seats on the legislative body are up for grabs.

Council members JoAnn Yukimura and Mel Rapozo are running for mayor against county Parks and Recreation Director Bernard Carvalho. A fourth mayoral candidate, Kapa‘a resident Rolf Bieber, filed on Monday.

The top vote-getter will take office Dec. 1 for the remaining two years of the late Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s second term.

More than 150 residents rallied yesterday evening on the lawn in front of the Historic County Building where Rapozo delivered a statement on why he is running for mayor.

“What matters most is not your name, your race, your color … but what you do for others,” he said, a bit choked up. “I’ll set the priorities. I’ll set the direction.”

Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, who attended Rapozo’s event, is running unopposed for county prosecutor.

Of the 22 candidates running for council, eight filed their nomination papers yesterday, according to the uncertified 2008 candidate filing information. Candidates have until 4:30 p.m. today to withdraw from the race, according to state law.

Read more …

(Source: Nathan Eagle, Kauai Garden Island News)

A hunter who was reported missing on July 19, has been found alive Monday morning.

Rescue crews found 21-year-old Cody Kimura, after he apparently fired two shots in the air.

Search and rescue had flown over him several times over the weekend but did not spot him.  Conditions in the area were overcast which hampered efforts.

Kimura says he fired his gun but the helicopter was too loud for rescuers to hear. 

Monday morning, Kimura fired two shots that were heard by searchers. They went in the general direction of the gun fire and found him.

Kimura said he had run out of food and water and was living off berries. 

(Source: KHNL 8 News)

Ever wonder what the largest fish caught in Hawaiian waters were? Wonder no more, thanks to the folks over at Hawaii Fishing News …

Hawaii State Fishing Records

A search for a 21-year-old hunter in Koke‘e began at first light yesterday morning and was expected to continue until dusk or as long as safe weather conditions permitted, a county news release states.

Cody Kimura of Lihu‘e was reported missing at around 11:20 p.m., Saturday, after efforts to find him by his hunting party were unsuccessful.

Police officers, law enforcement officers from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Kaua‘i Search and Rescue Team have been searching the Sugi Grove area on foot while fire fighters and rescue specialists from the Kaua‘i Fire Department were conducting an aerial search on Air-1.

Kimura had gone goat hunting in Koke‘e with his 15-year-old brother and a male friend at 2:45 a.m., Saturday. He left them at around 9:30 a.m. to retrieve an item from their vehicle.

When Kimura did not return, his brother and friend went looking for him. They encountered another hunting party who said they had passed Kimura on the trail.

They continued their search into the night, but were unable to locate him. They then notified police that he was missing.

(Source: Kauai Garden Island News)

Todd Rundgren may keep a low profile, but his legacy lingers

Rundgren might be best known for a song that slipped away, which is fitting since Rundgren’s 40-year career as a musician and producer has had a pinball-like quality to it.

Even he admits of Bang on a Drum All Day, “Everybody knows the song, but they have no idea who recorded it.” He says his label didn’t think much of the song, which was never promoted as a single.

When local classic-rock station 93.7 FM The Arrow played its catalog of songs from Z to A last weekend, Rundgren’s Bang on the Drum All Day arrived shortly after Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.

He produced that one, too.

Still, Rundgren is a name more recognized than known. He doesn’t sound bothered by it.

As he says about Drum, “Once you get a song to that level, it has penetrated the cultural consciousness in a way that something like a Top 10 single hasn’t. It’s likeHappy Birthday. Everybody knows Happy Birthday.”

Sabotage is a strong word for what he’s done to his career, but Rundgren, 60, doesn’t reject the term. He’s long had a tendency to clear a path only to abandon it for the thicket.

“I have a short attention span,” he says. “And I’m creatively restless, I guess, in a way. It’s not me trying to consciously confuse the audience. It’s just that I listen to my own records and eventually get bored with them, and then I have to do something that doesn’t resemble the last record I made. It’s inevitable.”

He laughs. “And yeah, in some ways it’s prevented me from having that scale of success. But it’s brought me a loyal audience, and here I am 40 years later able to make a living in music, and that’s important to me.”

Read more …

(Source: Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle)