CREW PROFILE: Abraham "Snake" Ah Hee

by Sam Low

"My father taught me to get lobster without a spear," Snake Ah Hee explains, "you have to gentle, have a good hand, or you spoil the hole. If you do it right you can come back in a few days and there will be another lobster there."

Snake was born on March 18, 1946 in Lahaina, Maui. He lived for a time with his great grandfather who had a house on the ocean outside town. "It was a fishing family," he explains, "we had nets and canoes and ever since I was a small kid my dad took me fishing. I learned the different areas to fishing, how to find the fish, how the current moves, how to steer a canoe using Japanese oars." Snakes's father, Abraham Ah Hee, Sr., was called "Froggy" by his friends because he could stay underwater and swim like a frog. Like most Hawaiians, Snake began to surf as a young boy. Gradually becoming comfortable in big waves. He surfed for a time with the Wind and Sea Surf Club, a California group, and in contests often went home with a cup marked "first place." Later he was on the Gregg Knoll surf team and paddled for the Lahaina Canoe Club where he was also a coach. "I still love to surf," Snake says, " and I hope to do it into my eighties. The ocean has taken hold of me spiritually and mentally. I think its because its tied in with my family, with being raised on the ocean."

Snake graduated from Lahainaluna High School in 1964 and continued to work as a life guard at a variety of hotels on Maui. He joined the National Guard and was called up in 1968 to go on Active duty--one tour in Vietnam. He served in the Southern zone of war--not to far from Saigon. He rose to be a squad leader in charge of patrols. "It made my mind stronger," he says, "more adult. It taught me the value of life. It's crazy to fight. I hope that my children will never have to go to war I want to see peace--all the time--all over the world."

Snake has five children, three girls and two boys: Malia Mahealani, Nainoa Chad, Makalea Rose, Mau Nukuhiva, and David. It is not an accident that the names Nainoa, Chad and Mau appear in this family. "Hokule`a brought all her crew together, "Snake says, "we're like a family of brothers and sisters. I can go anywhere in Hawaii and stay with my `ohana--on the Big Island, for example, I stay with Shorty or Tava or Chad; on Moloka`i maybe with Mel Paoa or Penny Rawlins. I might not see them for a year but when I do it seems like just a short time."

In 1975 Snake first heard about Hokule`a and that she would sail to Tahiti, but he had never had an opportunity to see her. "Then one day I was in my truck on the way to the canoe beach and I saw this boat coming from Lana`i. 'What's that?' I thought. I stopped my truck. I had never seen anything like it before."

Later, George Paoa and Sam Ka`ai came to the beach where Snake was lifeguarding and asked him to be a member of the crew. He began training right away and was chosen to be on the crew for the return trip from Tahiti to Hawai`i. That's where he first met Nainoa. "That trip gave me a real good feeling on the inside," Snake remembers, "It was a good thing for my generation. The canoe makes us strong in mind and spirit--close to our culture. If not for the canoe I won't say that our culture would be lost, but it would be weaker. It helped bring back the language, and helped bring back the community, not only in Hawai`i but throughout all the Pacific--wherever she has stopped."

"On this trip," he continues, "I am here to teach the younger generation who are sailing with us--how to take care of themselves and each other--how to be humble. For me that's the one key part. If you are humble everything will be fine. Everyone will think the same, work the same; be closer together. Only if you are humble can you learn."