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.”
Aira is creating art from the trashed surfboard pieces to sell and will donate 15% to 30% of the money to North Shore relief efforts.
Right now, he has five projects he's working on with very specific designs he's carved into the boards. Most of his designs are birds and flowers. One board has a java sparrow on the branch of a plumeria tree.
Some of his art pieces are still in the process of getting painted.
Aira, who was born in Cuba and raised in Maryland, has been doing this type of art for two decades. His work helps keep fiberglass and foam out of the landfill.
“This is a process that I've been working on for years that had to create all my own tools for. There was nothing available in the early 2000s,” he said.
Aira hopes to help the North Shore community by selling his art.
