It is my extreme pleasure to introduce to you Kahana Kalama, Jedidiah’s Brand Manager. Kahana started surfing for Jedidiah in 2004 as a senior at Point Loma Nazarene University, and the brand has come a long way as his contributions have been a huge factor.
Born in Kailua, Oahu, Kahana grew up on the islands of Hawaii aspiring to work within the surf industry. At Point Loma Nazarene University, Kahana studied Managerial & Organizational Communications and directly after graduation in 2005, started surfing for the Jedidiah surf team. This eventually led into working full-time as the marketing manager in December of that year.
When Kahana isn’t closing deals at work, he loves hanging out with Sarah (his beautiful new wife of almost 3 weeks; pictured below), surfing Americas and riding his bicycle around North Park. And although he loves living in San Diego, his favorite places to visit are San Sebastian, Spain and home in Hawaii.
A few things that you wouldn’t necessarily know about Kahana are that he used to play the cello, has a crazy long name (Christian Anthony Kahanakealohamainokalani Kalama)(!!!) and that surfing/working for Jedidiah has taken him a ton of rad places including Spain, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nicaragua (3x), Costa Rica (2x), Japan, and Haiti.
He lists his current favorite 3 bands as Washed Out, Coyote Clean Up, White Hinterland but he and I both think you should also know that his first concert was TLC, BoyzIIMen and MC Hammer (at the age of 6).
When asked about the most defining experiences in his life, he responded “getting married trumps any experience I have ever had in my entire life” but goes on to mention his first experience with the Gabriel House in Mexico and how it changed his perspective and helped him realize how easy it is to work service into everyday life.
Before we finished chatting, I asked him the next thing he was going to eat and his response: “The next thing I am going to eat is Sushi Deli. That is super SUPER predictable…but I guess I am really predictable.”
Kahana is really an incredible worker and does so much that enables everyone around him to succeed at what they do. He is incredibly humble and a lot of fun to be around. Jedidiah is a better place because of Kahana Kalama.
