Labor Day was created as a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the American working class, and the working class celebrates it in a multitude of ways.
The three-day holiday weekend marks the unofficial end of summer, with backyard barbecues, picnics, beach outings — and on Hawaii Island, iron horses rumbling with heavy-metal thunder.
The Koa Puna Motorcycle Club Puna Chapter is presiding over the Labor Day Motorcycle Event 2017. Every Labor Day weekend for the past 38 years, bikers statewide and beyond converge to display gleaming motorcycle muscle on the island’s highways and byways.
“This year, we’re having at least a hundred bikes,” Blaine Malendres, the chapter president, said Friday. “They’re from Kauai, Maui — and on the Big Island, we have four chapters. We got some guys came in from Las Vegas. We’ve got a chapter up there and some of those guys came over. We’ve got some guys from different clubs that are joining us on our run.”
Malendres said all bikers, not just Koa Puna, are welcome to join the celebration. Saturday’s Hilo-to-Kona run culminated in an event at Hale Halawai county park in Kailua-Kona sponsored by Koa Puna’s Kona and Kohala chapters.
And there’s a two-day event today and Monday at the county’s Onekahakaha Beach Park in Hilo.
“That’s open to all bikers, too,” said Malendres. “We got live music, food, a gathering with all the bikers in our chapters for Labor Day, and other bike clubs that support us.”
The club, founded in 1979 in Puna, has grown throughout the islands and beyond. United by the lure of the open road and the sense of freedom that comes from being at one with the environment during the ride, Koa Puna’s members come from all walks of life.
“We are a supportive, family-oriented motorcycle club. We are not a gang,” said Charla “Ala” Candaroma.
“We support the children on the Puna side with school supplies and Thanksgiving baskets for them, at Mountain View Keaau, Pahoa, Keonepoko and at the Hawaiian charter school Kua O Ka La. We do security at community events, like the county fair. We give back.”
And while Koa Puna members are visible at community events, helping at schools and shopping at the supermarket like the rest of us, for many, the coolness of a street bike is something even the most expensive sports car can’t match.
As an anonymous two-wheeled sage once explained it: “The ride isn’t just to reach your destination. The ride is the destination.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.