by Armand Gutierrez, President
The Nisei Ski Club (NSC) had their ski week at Jackson Hole, Wy, and was joined by members of the Hawaiian Snowriders to honor Lloyd Maeda in a slope side memorial. Lloyd’s friends from the Hawaiian Snowriders included Jay Fukuda, Ed Ho, and Wesley Lum. They had traveled from Hawaii to join NSC for a week of skiing at Jackson Hole, Wy. From 27 January – 3 February.
So who was Lloyd? Lloyd loved to snowboard with his friend Roland Kutaka (they were from the dark side) in the club they organized called the Hawaiian Snowriders, with Jay Fukuda, Ed Ho, Beverly Uemura, Randy Chu, Tom Ho, Fran Tone, Stephen Sang, and Dave Lee. Jackson Hole was one of Lloyd’s favorite places to snowboard. In November of 2014 Lloyd, aged 59, passed after several years of suffering from the effects of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In 2015 the Nisei Ski Club held their annual ski week trip in Jackson Hole, and it was befitting that we decided, with the blessings of his family, to spread some of his ashes here at Jackson Hole off of the Casper chair lift, at the base of the grove of trees between the Sleeping Indian and Wide Open runs.
On Tuesday, 30 January, members of NSC joined the Hawaiian boys to visit with them at the same location, had a toast of Jack Daniels and Fireball and enjoyed each other’s company. The 3 days we had been skiing here had been overcast and near whiteout conditions caused by fog, but Lloyd cleared the fog with some blue skies for us today! He watched over us while we are here and to keep us safe from harm. We miss you and will see you again. Aloha and ahui hou.
A little tribute from Jay Fukuda
