Welcome to Focus, Civil Beat‘s new audio-slideshow series celebrating the rich culture of our community.

Inspired by the New York Times’ One in 8 Million series, we’ll be photographing and interviewing people from all walks of life and sharing their stories with you in a multimedia format.

The goal is to highlight the diversity and depth of the people who call Hawaii home, and maybe we’ll see how our differences unite us.

We’re starting with an avid waterman, Randon “Nobie” Blackmon. The Waimanalo resident has studied Hawaiian navigation techniques used by his ancestors and paddles with Hui Nalu.

We caught up with him at Hawaiian Surf Adventure in Hawaii Kai, where he was preparing to take a group out in the double-hull canoe he built.

If you have ideas for future subjects we should feature in Focus, please email them to neagle@civilbeat.com. We hope to add a new show every other week.