“Our way of life shouldn’t be just about business – our business should be a way of life!”
“Hawaiian Dan”
On February 24, 1974, after migrating to the little town of Rockford, Illinois to seek employment, two proud parents welcomed into the world myself their Thai-Hawaiian baby Daniel Natt Dejkunchorn. Of all the places on the mainland why choose Illinois? It’s simple, discrimination was still pretty prevalent during those times and not many Poly’s (island hopping immigrants) could be found running around mainland side (btw Hawaiians are Polynesian). At that time Illinois was known to have one of the highest employment rates for immigrants who were often denied employment elsewhere. Not to mention acquiring U.S. citizenship was less restrictive at the time.
As most Hawaiians are of mixed heritage, (hence the term “Poly-nesian”) I am no different. It’s no secret that historically Polynesians can be traced back to Asia. Just look at the derivative of the term Polynesian. As a matter of fact, back in Asia in those days, survival depended on the matter of fight or flight. Conquerors were conquering and you had one of three options: 1. Fight and risk being killed, 2. Be conquered thus becoming a part of, 3. Runaway to live in peace another day. Now think back to Mongol and Khmer empires. My father’s side comes from the line of conquerors. My mother’s side peaceful farmers and gatherers. In talk-story, I’m told some of our people who were not conquerors migrated away from the war zones. Through India, China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia…and then where did they go? There’s only one thing to do when you’re surrounded by waters. You got it! You take to it like da fish bruddah and thus we did!
Polynesians are master seafarers, ocean navigators, astronomers and sailors who used the techniques of wayfinding to travel long distances throughout the Polynesian Islands. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that the volcanos of Hawaii were very active during those days and the columns of smoke couldn’t have been too hard to spot. Hawaiians are also known for being extremely resourceful, avid fishermen, divers and zealously industrious – that is…when we’re not surfing of course! Yes, we invented surfing “he’e nalu” as well as SUPing (Stand Up Paddle Boarding) “ku hoe he’e nalu”. If you’re a SUPer or have ever participated in SUPing then you have actually held onto a piece of Hawaiian Heritage. Can you guess what it is? Da “hoe” or paddle. As a matter of fact, the kickback angle of the paddle’s blade is an ancient Hawaiian innovation designed to improve the performance of the paddle.
As you can see from my talk-story, I have quite a historical Asian and Polynesian heritage which in turn gave birth to my life as a waterman. Surfing since the age of 9, fishing my whole life both pole and spear, salt and fresh water, deep sea, inshore, and inland, water skiing, barefoot skiing, SCUBA diving, sailing, kiteboarding, kayaking, boating, body surfing, boogie boarding, windsurfing, SUPing, canoeing, whitewater, jet skiing, tow-in surfing, and the list goes on and on! Heck, I even love taking a bath…why? Because there’s water involved. What do I do when I’m landlocked? Design products foa when I can get back to da water!
As of May 2018, I started TalkFishTV.com my very own video production company. Where I star, host, film, edit and all around produce every aspect of the latest fishing reports for the north east U.S. region. These reports are syndicated on The Fisherman Magazine Weekly Video Fishing Reports and reach over half a million viewers weekly. I also include how-to tutorials and in 2019 will offer fishing guide services, fishing guide tutorial services, video production services, video production tutorial services, video production drone services, video production drone tutorial services, marketing services to include organic, paid, and social media, analytics to monitor ROI, YouTube channel creation services, and tutorial services covering the vast platform spectrums for both Adobe and the Google.