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Jace Makani and Ikaika Makani

Jace Makani and Ikaika Makani became family through Jace’s hānai relationship with Mo Makani. Ikaika introduced Jace to surfing during childhood visits to Oʻahu, taught him through patience and demonstration, and adapted their work after Jace acquired a traumatic brain injury. Jace called Ikaika his favorite of Mo’s uncles. After Ikaika’s March 2054 heart attack, Jace returned some of the practical steadiness Ikaika had given him.

First Oʻahu Visits

Jace was approximately seven or eight and Amber about ten when Mo and Elise first brought them to Oʻahu to meet Mo’s family in person. Ikaika welcomed both children as family. Jace attached to him quickly and became interested in the ocean and the physical confidence with which Ikaika moved through it.

Ikaika began with beach safety, surf etiquette, shallow-water confidence, the feel of the board, and observation of waves and weather. His reassurance let Jace try something difficult without pretending that falling would not happen.

For Jace, time in the water with Ikaika also offered distance from the vigilance he had learned around Mike. Ikaika corrected mistakes without intimidation and used his strength to teach and protect. His approval mattered to Jace because it followed close attention and effort rather than demanding that Jace be unafraid or faultless. The relationship gave him another model of male authority while Mike remained part of his mainland life.

Lessons continued across later visits. Jace progressed from basic board handling toward reading different conditions, positioning himself, and managing more challenging breaks. Ikaika also shared stories about Kawika, family history, Native Hawaiian cultural survival, responsibility toward land and water, and the difference between taking part in a family practice and consuming it as a tourist product.

Teaching and Communication

Ikaika taught through action and demonstration rather than prolonged explanation. He asked Jace questions, let him study the water, and made him attempt a solution before stepping in. His expectations remained high, but mistakes did not bring ridicule or shame. Praise followed effort, attention, or improved judgment rather than only a successful ride.

Ikaika used Hawaiian words during surfing and family life, allowing Jace to learn their meanings through context, repetition, and questions. The lessons joined ocean conditions and surf etiquette to family relationships and cultural concepts. Jace’s participation came through his hānai place in Mo’s family, while his German-Scandinavian ancestry through Elise remained distinct from Ikaika’s Native Hawaiian heritage.

Their time together included teasing, laughter, and comfortable silence. Ikaika was physically affectionate and emotionally open with him. He hugged Jace tightly, touched his hair, carried him when he was exhausted, and said directly when he was proud or afraid. When protection was necessary, his ordinary lightness could become controlled resolve.

Ikaika told Jace, “Surfing not just about standing on board, keiki. Is about feeling ocean, respecting water, understanding you part of something bigger.” He treated asking for help, observing danger, and respecting a force larger than oneself as parts of competence rather than failures of courage.

October 2045 Assault and Injury

Main article: Mike Watson’s Assault on Jace (October 18, 2045) - Event

When Mike Watson pushed ten-year-old Jace down the porch steps, Jace sustained a severe traumatic brain injury, remained in a coma, and developed lasting visual-processing, spatial-awareness, balance, seizure, fatigue, and emotional-regulation disabilities. The injury threatened an activity that had given Jace confidence and connected him to Ikaika and Mo.

Ikaika sobbed after learning what had happened. He fasted, prayed in Hawaiian, appealed to God and his ancestors, and repeated that he had not done enough to protect Jace. His response was not the reserve of a distant elder; he grieved openly and remained involved through updates and later visits.

When he could be physically present, Ikaika sat near Jace’s hammock, prayed, kissed his forehead, stroked his hair, and carried him to bed when fatigue overtook him. He did not treat survival as the end of the crisis or ask Jace to reassure the adults around him.

Returning to the Water

Jace’s early recovery left it uncertain whether he could surf again. Bright light caused pain, peripheral vision and distance judgment were impaired, balance was unreliable, and physical exertion could produce severe fatigue. Ikaika received updates from Mo and approached the problem as a change in access rather than proof that the relationship with the ocean was over.

During the February 2050 trip for Amber’s Sweet Sixteen, Ikaika and Jace met in person for the first time since the injury. Ikaika assessed what had changed without pity or lowered expectations. They began with calmer water and smaller waves, shortened sessions around fatigue, used verbal cues to supplement vision, and practiced balance on the beach before moving onto the board.

The board challenged balance and spatial processing; reading waves required visual judgment; the physical work tested stamina. Ikaika changed one variable at a time and let Jace’s responses determine the next step. He told him, “Then we teach your body how to listen again,” and, “You never needed fixin’, Jace. You just needed time.”

The return did not erase the injury or reproduce Jace’s earlier body. It restored access to a valued activity through a method that respected his current neurology. Jace could remain the person who surfed with Ikaika without having to deny disability.

During the same visit, Jace worked beside Ikaika and Mo on Amber’s celebration food and setup from early morning. When Jace’s fatigue caught up with him, Ikaika found him, carried him, and praised the work he had contributed instead of framing rest as failure.

March 2054 Heart Attack

Main article: Uncle Ikaika’s Heart Attack (March 2054) - Event

Ikaika suffered a major heart attack while surfing in early March 2054. Jace was eighteen. When the family received the news, Mo fainted from shock and dropped young Alika; Jace caught the child and helped manage the immediate crisis.

Jace flew to Hawaiʻi with Mo and joined the vigil at Queen’s Medical Center. Seeing Ikaika weak, exhausted, and connected to hospital equipment disrupted Jace’s image of him as physically unshakable. Ikaika nevertheless recognized them and retained some humor. He told Mo, “Now that you’re here… I can rest.”

Jace also monitored Mo, who had remained awake for approximately thirty hours and developed microsleeps. On the return through LAX, Mo slept so deeply that Jace struggled to wake him. At BWI, Jace arranged a courtesy wheelchair, pushed Mo through the terminal, answered concerned questions, and protected his dignity while managing his own post-TBI fatigue.

Ikaika’s subsequent cardiac rehabilitation reversed part of their earlier relationship. Jace understood the disorientation of surviving a sudden bodily change and the difference between useful adaptation and being treated as incapable. He could support Ikaika’s recovery without reducing him to a patient or demanding a return to his previous body.

Ikaika remained Jace’s elder, teacher, and family member. Jace’s new ability to steady him did not erase that history; it extended the reciprocity Ikaika had taught through years of care.

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