Ruben Aira Jr. sands down the tail of a broken surfboard on a recent Saturday morning after cutting out the fiberglass and drawing intricate patterns resembling nature.
His home workshop is filled with half a dozen surfboards he’s collected from the North Shore. Some were also donated to him after the March 20 floodwaters devastated O‘ahu’s North Shore.
That hit home for Aira, who spent 15 years on the North Shore and is a former surfer himself.
“This project was inspired by the connection I have with the people who are suffering right now,” he said. “I was trying to figure out how I could do something to help them.”…