93-year-old Big Island legend Uncle Manny Veincent shares experiences, knowledge in new memoir

Native Hawaiian kūpuna Manuel “Manny” Veincent of the Big Island recounts his life as a paddler, rancher, Marine Corps veteran and firefighter in a new book: “Born of Two Oceans: A Memoir.”

Written with Kim Ann Curtin, “Born of Two Oceans” traces the 93-year-old’s journey from Keaukaha’s rugged shoreline to the lava fields of Mauna Kea, from childhood fishing stories and ʻaumākua shark encounters to fire rescues and coaching championship canoe crews.

Veincent started his memoir, but sought out Curtin to help him complete it. Every Friday for about three years, the two met in her Waimea office, where he shared his stories.

“We would sit together for hours a week and talk story because he wanted this to be done for his family, friends and the younger generations,” Curtin said. “He told me he wants to help them understand what is here and to pass wisdom and knowledge down that may get lost.”

The memoir spans back to his great-grandfather, who left the Madeira Islands on a whaling ship in the mid-1800s and jumped ship at Kalapana in the Puna District, which is where the name of the book comes from. While his great-grandfather swam to shore to live in Hawaiʻi, Veincent sees himself as a product of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Throughout the book, he tells his colorful stories of his grandparents, family and friends — and his countless adventures in the Hawaiian Islands, including close encounters with sharks.

Veincent was born in 1932 in Hilo. He was part of a generation whose lived experiences now form the endangered oral history of Hawaiʻi.

He served on the battlefield in the Korean War with the Marines. When falling debris from an explosion crushed his hand, Veincent returned to Honolulu to recover before being flown out to Korea two more times as a general mechanic and an aircraft mechanic.

After his military service, Veincent returned to Hawaiʻi to go to college. He was recruited for a job at Hawaiian Airlines due to his military experience and began making good money on Oʻahu.

Veincent would often fly back to the Big Island to hunt on the slopes of Mauna Kea, which was where he felt most at peace. After four years with Hawaiian Airlines, a job opportunity on the mountain became available and Veincent did not hesitate to take a big pay cut and move back to the Big Island.

“But my life wasnʻt in Honolulu,” Veincent wrote. “My heart was in Waimea. I wanted to go home. The mountain was already in my mind. In my imagination, I was always thinking about Mauna Kea.”

Much to his wife’s dismay, Veincent began working his dream job on Mauna Kea as a Wildlife Aide for the State Division of Fish and Game, which is now the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife.

One of his first jobs was to capture nēnē for the State of Hawaiʻi Nēnē Restoration Project, which was perfect for the man who wanted solitude on the mountain, according to Curtin.

He worked for the state for a few years before the Hawaiʻi Fire Department on the Big Island recruited Veincent. He joined as a firefighter and then was trained for mountain rescue, which resulted in several intense, high-adrenaline rescues and body retrievals.

After six years in the rescue unit, Veincent was ready to go into cattle ranching in Waimea and was able to move to the fire station in Honokaʻa and eventually South Kohala. During this time, he began cattle ranching and still manages a 300-acre ranch lot to this day.

But perhaps his biggest legacy is his four decades with the Kawaihae Canoe Club.

In 1972, he helped found the club and became its first coach. He led the club as coach and president for more than 40 years, breaking many island records and winning state championships while positively affecting the lives of hundreds of paddlers, including Curtin.

While Veincent was not available to talk for this story, he speaks about his legacy in the book and believes his biggest impact has been in helping and coaching people of all ages through their hardest moments.

“I know I have made an impact on quite a few young lives. I have taught them self-discipline, respect for others, dedication, and to have commitment to the details of whatever you are participating in or involved in,” Veincent wrote. “Be true to yourself. You will always know.”

It was through paddling that Curtin and Veincent ended up working together on the book.

While house-sitting and writing her own book in Kawaihae for a year, the self-published “Transforming Wall Street: A Conscious Path for a New Future” in 2015, Curtin decided to join the Kawaihae Canoe Club, where the New Yorker met Veincent and heard her first calling to stay on Hawaiʻi Island.

“When I paddled for the first time, I fell in love with the canoe club and that experience of being on the water,” Curtin said. “It was never my plan to make the Big Island my home, but there was something special I felt, and I think it was (Manny’s) mana.”

She had lived on the Big Island for a couple of years when Veincent told her about his book and asked her to read through it and help him if she could.

“It was an honor he even asked,” she said.

According to the Kawaihae Canoe Club website, the priority of the board of directors is to continue and carry on the legacy and values of the Hawaiian koa canoe and racing as taught to each of them by Veincent.

“I was never an athlete, but when I started to paddle, it was the most incredible thing,” Curtin said. “He has this ability to suss out limiting behavior, like negative self-talk. I would be in the ocean, and he would be on the beach, and from there, he would tell me over the bullhorn exactly what I needed to hear, like he could read minds.”

While the book is a memory of one man, Curtin believes anyone can relate to his story since he always stayed true and never limited himself.

“No matter what time or era, Manny has always been true to himself,” she said. “He has made choices that others disagreed with. He made a lot of money with Hawaiian Airlines as a mechanic, but when he found himself on Maunakea counting nēnē, he knew he was meant to do that work.

“I think this book is for anyone who perhaps needs to get rid of their own self-limiting beliefs and find the why in their own lives.”

“Born of Two Oceans: A Memoir,” is out now. Visit its website, which has two links for purchasing the book.