Salty Podcast #99 ⛵ Changing Lives through the Ocean! StreetWaves.org

A kid can live three to five miles from the beach and still never see the ocean. That fact hits hard, and it is where Maurice “Maui” Goodbeer starts. Maui is the founder and executive director of Street Waves, a South Florida nonprofit that has spent years teaching inner-city kids how to swim, surf, and build real skills on boats. His drive is personal: after his younger brother was murdered, he promised at the funeral he would do something direct for kids who are growing up around violence and limited options.

We get into what Street Waves actually does on the ground: small-group swim instruction for safety, surf training that builds confidence fast, and hands-on maritime career exposure at the marina. Once kids can swim, “salty jobs” become possible, from lifeguarding and ocean rescue to marine trades like fiberglass work, engines, and boat electrical. Maui shares the moments that stay with him, like teens crying when they see the ocean for the first time, plus breakthrough stories including a former non-swimmer becoming ocean rescue and a student going on to become a Navy SEAL.

The conversation takes a sharp, useful turn into nonprofit strategy for creators, coaches, and builders. Maui explains why mission-first work can widen access for people who cannot afford services, how donations and grants can fund that gap, and why he believes the world needs more nonprofits to fill what for-profits and government miss. We also talk volunteering, drowning prevention realities, and the community healing power of time on the water.

If you care about youth swimming programs, drowning prevention, surf therapy, maritime careers, or building a nonprofit organization with real impact, hit play. Subscribe, share this with someone who loves the ocean, and leave a review so more people can find the story.

Get your Sailor SPF Shirt at https://SaltyPodcast.myshopify.com

Transcript

Street Waves And Ocean Access

Maui 0:01

So, aloha everyone. My name is Maurice Maui Goodbeer. I'm the founder and executive director at Street Waves, and at Street Waves, for the last 18 years, we have been teaching inner city kids how to swim and surf and boat. It's been a real passion of mine.

Grief That Sparked The Mission

Maui 0:16

I started the organization in 2008 because my younger brother was murdered by a 16-year-old gang member. And at his funeral, I made a promise that I would personally do something to help inner city kids. And so I didn't really know what I was going to do when I made that promise. I moved to South Beach a few years after. So I paddle out one day to surf, and I'm sitting in the lineup, and then all of a sudden I hear what sounds like inner city kids talking trash to each other. And shit damn. And I look around and I don't see any kids. And I look further in the distance and I see seagulls diving. And immediately I knew how I would honor my brother by teaching kids how to surf. So since

Teaching Swimming Surfing And Boating

Maui 0:58

then, we've taught thousands of kids how to surf and swim and boat. We have programs, we take sailboats, we get many of them donated to our foundation, and we get kids living on them at anchor, down in Miami, in Fort Lauderdale area. We've taught kids how to surf, they've surfed all different places in the world, won lots of different competitions. Swimming is at the core of the work that we do. And now we are growing into maritime careers. So kids will come to the marina, they'll do all different types of odd jobs on boats to make a little money after school. Now that we have them swimming and doing a great job in the water, come around and wash boats, do minor fiberglass work with me, and do really cool things to kind of get involved in the marine career industry. It's been an amazing journey. It's been

Nonprofit Advantages For Builders

Maui 1:41

incredible. One thing that's become important to me after all these years is now helping others learn how to run nonprofit organizations. I look at a lot of the creators, a lot of the course builders, coaches, online coaches, and I see where there's a great opportunity for them to consider the nonprofit world because of the tax benefits, because of what it does for the morale of their business in terms of being able to have the authority as a nonprofit builder to share with their community these different virtues. For example, if you have someone that does coaching, online coaching, and they're not able to afford their services, you've got someone who may not be able to afford your online coaching or afford your course. As a nonprofit, you could raise money to give them the ability to take the course as well, even receiving donations from the different people that can afford to pay for your course to help those that cannot. And it kind of widens the scope of your business. And so we've been encouraging for-profit companies to align, the IRS has recently allowed LLCs to file as a nonprofit. But the grants that you get, the fundraising that comes along with it, the tax benefits are immeasurable because you're able to no longer have to pay taxes for anything within that organization. So we purchased this boat, paid no taxes on this boat. All of our vehicles, no taxes, and it's just been an amazing experience. But the beauty of it is because you have a mission. So our mission has been to introduce inner city kids to the ocean, and the benefits of that have been immeasurable.

Tinsley 3:11

Now

Kids Seeing The Ocean First Time

Tinsley 3:12

tell me about that. Tell me about one of the lives that have changed.

Maui 3:15

Yeah, totally. So we have kids that come to us, many of them have never seen the ocean, which is really kind of shocking, right? So we went to Miami? Oh along the entire coast. So our reach is from Miami to Jupiter so far. And I built this to be a nonprofit that really serves my healing, right? So people are, oh, why don't you grow it nationally and other places? And that hasn't been a desire of mine because it's important for me to be in the water with the kids. That's where I get my healing. So we have kids that are 16 years old are seeing the ocean for the very first time and they literally live within walking distance. Now, when I say walk, I'm saying three to five miles. You can walk through to five miles. So they live close enough to visit the ocean and have never seen it.

Tinsley 4:01

What do you suppose that is?

Maui 4:02

That's a good question. I think a lot of it has to do with their parents. Like, for example, if your parents don't go to the beach, you don't drive, how are you gonna get there? Unless you have friends that go. Typically people run in circles, right? Yeah. So if your parents don't go, likely their friends don't go. All right. So likely their friends' children don't go. And now you are removed from those possibilities that quickly. But to see a 16-year-old kid crying because he first saw the ocean for the first time, it's amazing. It's unbelievable to me, but very true.

Tinsley 4:31

I'm thinking about what you were saying about the jobs. It's just endless and they're in such demand.

Maui 4:37

Oh, absolutely.

Tinsley 4:38

So, I mean, all the the guys that fix boats, that work on boats, that clean boats, clean the holes, the guys that work in the yards, all the way to yachtis. There's so much opportunity.

Maui 4:51

Yeah, there really is. And so when you're removed from learning how to swim, if you don't know how to swim, all those salty jobs are just not available to you. So once we teach them how to swim, yeah, the score thing is swimming, absolutely. And we produce really good swimmers, some lifeguards. We've had one kid after 15 years of working. I got one kid to become ocean rescue.

Tinsley 5:10

Wow.

Maui 5:11

Went from a non-swimmer to ocean rescue. That was an incredible fee.

Tinsley 5:14

Ocean rescue being is that in the fire department or is it a it's a division of the fire department in this town, yeah. Okay.

Maui 5:20

But it is lifeguards at the beach.

Tinsley 5:22

Okay. Yeah, and there's the U.S. Coast Guard.

Maui 5:24

Oh, sure. Yeah, it opens up a world of opportunity.

Tinsley 5:27

There's U.S. Customs, the police on the water.

Maui 5:30

There's so many. The fire department, even a police officer. Right. These are all Chris. One of the things we do on this boat is we have a program we take law enforcement and children offshore fishing together. And that's been really magical to use this boat, have a bunch of cops on board, and they're so nice. Some of the cops are great fishermen. They're really loving to the kids, and they just pile around. I've had my own son on here with us getting advice from the cops, and all the kids all gathering together, catching big fish. It's magical. So we've really used the ocean as a healing modality for our community.

Tinsley 6:00

You're opening up whole new world farm.

Maui 6:02

Yeah.

Tinsley 6:03

And these are real jobs.

Maui 6:04

Sure, important jobs.

Tinsley 6:06

No matter, no matter where you're from.

Maui 6:08

Yeah. And these are trades that are falling by the wayside, too. They are like, for example, just recently, all the woodwork. You mentioned you got a lot of wood done on your boat. You gotta pay a pretty penny for it. And it's not difficult work. It's just time consuming. It's hot. And it's hot if you do it in the summertime. And no one wants to do it. Right. And so many people that own these boats, like yourself, have to be able to afford to do it, or your boat looks like truck. We had some guys do wood recently, two boats over, and assisted some of our kids to help and learn. They were there for a month, but they came from the Bahamas. They came from the Bahamas.

Tinsley 6:40

To do teak. To do wood. Or to do wood.

Maui 6:42

To do teak, yeah, absolutely. When we leave for I'll go by and show you the work they did. It doesn't look as good as yours, too, by the way. Yeah, so that was a really big one for us, the kid that became Ocean Rescue.

From Water Lessons To Navy SEAL

Maui 6:51

But we've had kids go into the military, had a kid recently, become a Navy SEAL. And that was really powerful. Yes. I went to his graduation down in San Diego at Coronado. He passed. I had no idea that he was even going to do this. I get a call that he's in Coronado in budge training. Yes. And then I was able to follow him along. There were many opportunities for him to fail, and he didn't. At one point he had drowned. They brought him back. They gave him a medal for that. They passed him through. And then he was rolled back because of something to do with his teammates. They kind of ganged up against him because he was the head of his class. He outran everyone, outperformed everyone, and they passed him through. He's now an official in the Navy SEAL. And first actually, he went to SWIC, which is where they run the boats. The SWIC operators run the boats for the Navy SEALs. And he did that for maybe three or four months, and then they graduated him to running the boats as a boat captain. And they just brought him to St. Petersburg to learn how to run the boats.

Tinsley 7:55

Oh, good.

Maui 7:56

Yeah. And then I recently heard that they're going to deploy him soon.

Tinsley 8:00

Did you know that for every Navy SEAL there's a thousand fake ones?

Maui 8:04

What's the fake one?

Tinsley 8:05

People that claim to be?

Maui 8:06

Oh, really? I never heard of that. So this kid is actually my brother's son, it's my nephew.

Tinsley 8:10

Okay.

Maui 8:11

And he came and worked with us, volunteered with us, worked in the water with us, went surfing with us, and just spent a lot of time in the water with us. He's from the Bahamas. Excuse me, not the Bahamas. He's from Barbados.

Tinsley 8:19

Okay.

Maui 8:19

And that's where my brother went after college and raised his family. So this kid was living in the community, was working up here at the local restaurant, where you bust the tables at the restaurant. Who knew what he was going to do? He jogged a lot. Yeah. And all of a sudden I hear that he's becoming a Navy SEAL. And he did.

Tinsley 8:38

Wow.

Maui 8:38

Yeah.

Tinsley 8:39

Quite an accomplishment.

Maui 8:40

Yeah, I was unbelievably surprised. Shocked first that he even did it. Because he's not thinking what would cause you to want to do that? Torture. Yeah. And particularly not being an American citizen, so to speak. His dad's American, so to my brother. But he wasn't raised here. He was raised in Barbados. And I was just so it couldn't be patriotism because you're not really from anything. And I'm so proud of him. So proud of him.

Tinsley 9:03

So how many kids are you working with now?

Maui 9:04

Yeah, so

Keeping Groups Small For Safety

Maui 9:05

we don't take more than 10 kids in the water at a time. That's for safety. That's to ensure that we've got enough eyeballs on the kids and that they're getting quality training. So one of the things we've seen is surf camps where there's 50, 60 kids, all the bunch of boards, everyone's having a blast, which is great. But in terms of actually learning how to surf, it takes a little more reps. So we like to have less kids in the water and produce more quality.

Tinsley 9:26

Where did you learn how to surf?

Maui 9:28

San Diego. Well, I'm from San Diego, California, born and raised, and grew up paddling out at Black's Beach and going to different places along the coast early in life, Mission Beach. And then started traveling a little bit and then moved to Florida. Came here and the surf was very nominal. Yeah. But that's when I said, you know what? I'm gonna teach inner city kids how to surf. And it's been awesome for teaching inner city kids how to surf.

Tinsley 9:55

And you said this was 2000.

Maui 9:57

2008 when we started. I moved here in 05. So I've been in Florida now 21 years. And the whole time since this was dedicated to my brother, it's never been about me, it's always been about the kids. I focused solely on making sure that these kids learn how to swim and learn how to surf. And then we matriculated in the boating later.

Learning To Sail The Hard Way

Maui 10:22

It was so nice. One of the students was so excited to come along with me. And we had the boat maybe an hour, we're coming under this bridge, and we hit the bridge. So the bridge meter said that the bridge was like 67 feet. And I'm looking at the bridge, I'm like, I know that's not 60-something feet. What it was, there was a train bridge that's always open, even on the charts, it's open. But for whatever reason, that day it was closed.

Tinsley 10:51

It was right next to it?

Maui 10:52

It was right in front of me. And so to the point where the bridge meter was for the bridge bridge behind it. And so I remember going under it. I'm like, dude, I know this is not.

Tinsley 11:02

What happened to the boat?

Maui 11:04

The mass fell down, and the kids, the winds out of the kids' sails. I'm like, I can't believe this. The donor's looking out of his office window.

Tinsley 11:11

Disaster. Oh, disaster.

Maui 11:13

He was pissed off. He just donated this boat to us. We don't know what we're doing. We're figuring it all out. And lo and behold, yep, so we ended up having to get it fixed and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Tinsley 11:22

You fixed it? You got it fixed?

Maui 11:23

We actually ended up selling the boat to someone else that could fix it.

Tinsley 11:26

Okay. So tell me about the sailing. How do the kids take to sailing? Are they do they like power boating better? Were they like sailing?

Maui 11:33

No, I think they like sailing. I just sailed just maybe a month ago with one of our students. We got a boat donated to us in Venice, Florida.

Tinsley 11:43

Yeah, Venice Beach. Venice Beach, yeah.

Maui 11:45

It was so nice, so beautiful. And we brought it down from Venice. I got them to Fort Myers before I had to get off the boat. And then he brought it around on through the Gulf with another volunteer to Miami. But they love it. Yeah, they love it. Of course, we it was a early in the early days, it was a long learning curve for us.

Tinsley 12:04

You were learning how to sail?

Maui 12:05

Yeah, we were learning how to do this all on our own. We had volunteers, right? So I would always put out asks for various volunteers to come out and help us learn how to sail. And lots of guys would show up and say, oh yeah, dude. So we learned to wallow with these.

Tinsley 12:17

So that's interesting. So tell me about that, because I do have a sailing channel, and people would there might be somebody that wants to volunteer.

Maui 12:24

Yeah, no, it's been great. So our best volunteer, I think, that taught us so much was my good friend Justin Smith. And his boat is called Charter Chai. He is out of Tortola, St. Thomas area. He also charters his boat in Blound. I know where that is. Yeah, in the summertime. He's in Block Island. Beautiful boat. Love it. I've crewed on it many times. And was actually out in St. Croix with him when I filmed that boat fire that we talked

The Catamaran Fire That Went Viral

Maui 12:51

about.

Tinsley 12:51

Yeah, let's talk about that.

Maui 12:52

Yeah, so that was really wild. So I went out there to see a sailboat, uh sailing cat called Quest. It's another boat that Justin owns. And I was like, man, you're really selling Quest? I would love to have that boat. So it was a little apprehensive because I have a slip here in the marine and it won't fit here. Okay. So the slip next to me, I thought maybe if I could have him take the pilots and I could bring it in here. So let me just go take a look at the boat. I get there to take a look at the boat.

Tinsley 13:15

Where did you go look at the boat?

Maui 13:16

In St. Croix.

Tinsley 13:17

Yeah. Okay.

Maui 13:18

So I flew to St. Croix, had a great night, hung out, had a good time, got up the next morning, and we were going to sail to St. Thomas. Yeah. And so we go to the fuel dock. All of a sudden, we hear the people at the fuel dock saying, There's a boat fire, there's a boat fire, there's a boat fire. So we run, we jump in the D, we shoot out to this boat, and it is on. Flames everywhere. Huge, billowing black clouds of smoke, stiff 20-knot breeze just cooking this fire. And we get on this, and these guys are there and they're shocked. They're in total shock. He's standing on the bow of the boat with an empty bucket, pacing, trying to figure out what to do. And I'll I'm screaming my head off saying, get off the boat, get off the boat now, get off the boat. Come on, come on, come on, come on. And he doesn't get off the boat.

Tinsley 14:06

This video went viral. Yeah. And when you started talking about this yesterday, I remember you see, you probably have seen it, and I was like, hmm. And then I was like, wait, I have seen that.

Maui 14:14

Yeah, it was crazy. So these guys would not get off the boat. I finally got the crew to get off the boat. The captain will not get off the boat. Toward the end, he breaks out a kitchen fire extinguisher and he's trying to put out this boat. Half the whole catamaran is gone. We're concerned about the propane tanks that might go off. Yeah. The mast is jeopardized. The boat is it's really in bad shape. And so after I shot it, an old sailor of ours we're hanging out with. Guy's got to be 80, some years old, build his own sailboat. Super cool, soft to do. He said, Man, you should probably put that on YouTube. I said, It's not a bad idea. I put it on YouTube. What's funny is Justin had put it on Facebook. And he noticed that he'd gotten like 50,000 views, had 100,000 views, he was then 200,000 views. He was so stoked. I'm like, dude, that's awesome. That's crazy. And just taking the old man's advice, I put it on YouTube before I went to bed. I woke up, there was over a million views. Wow. And then within two months, there was about 18 million views. Just under that. I put it on my Instagram.

Tinsley 15:29

And number of person on boardable.

Maui 15:36

We saw some smoke on the horizon, and it was a catamaran on fire. And someone was still up. Get off now! Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go! Hurry up! Come on, come on, come on! We were at the fuel dock, and a call came in that there was a fire. And we ran out, we jumped in the dinghy, got out there as quickly as we could, and we saw two guys on board fighting the fire, and the fire had already taken over the boat. And we were able to get the sailors off the boat, and that day, two lives were saved. It's all kind of new. Like I say, this is all that I've done has never been about me. It's always been about the kids, so I've always focused more on them. But

Why The World Needs More Nonprofits

Maui 16:24

once this video went viral, like now, I can start sharing my love for the nonprofit world with other people. Because I think that where for-profits fail us, where the government fails us, that's where nonprofits step in. And the work that nonprofits do is huge. It's so important. There's 320 million for-profit companies and more daily, and there's only less than two million nonprofits. And I just think an Americans. So that's been a passion of mine as of late.

Tinsley 16:50

I love it because that is what we did before there was government assistance.

Maui 16:54

That's right.

Tinsley 16:54

It was churches, charities, neighbors, Salvation Army, Goodwill.

Maui 16:59

Salvation Army was founded in the 1800s.

Tinsley 17:01

The Red Cross was Sweden?

Maui 17:03

Yep, Red Cross was Sweden. But it's here, but it's the American Red Cross now. So originally it was a Red Cross there, but this is the American version of it. It's been so important to have these types of organizations to fill gaps for communities. The Salvation Army is really interesting. I met with them a few years ago, and I didn't realize that they actually operate like an army. So they have generals and admirals and chiefs, and they dress up like in military garb. I was like, whoa, this is pretty cool, man. Oh, totally. Guy comes in, everyone stands and salutes them. Yeah, so their mission is that important. And that's really what the IRS is looking for is your mission. If your mission is to help other people, then you can get that status. And the status is important. It really is if you're helping people. And I see so many content creators and coaches that are helping people that don't have the ability to access the nonprofit code. It's really cool.

Tinsley 18:12

Tell me what why do you think it's important to teach people how to create nonprofits?

Maui 18:17

It's a really good question. For one, I don't think they're enough. The second thing is before I started a nonprofit, I was in the for-profit business. The reward centers that are touched when you're helping people are far greater than when you're just making money. When you're doing something with purpose, it's so much more. It's invaluable. And so the happiness that I receive in working with kids, giving to kids. The difference that's not stressful when you're actually helping people and the feelings that you get, the outcomes that you see when you see lives change in children's lives, and for the elderly or animals, or whatever you're passionate about. Even religion, people that are passionate about religion, whatever. So I just don't feel like there's enough of them. I feel like the word could use more, particularly with a lot of that's going on around the world. We need to be there to help each other more.

Tinsley 19:02

And you mentioned you teach people, so you have a course.

Maui 19:05

I do. Yeah, I have an online course that we're building out right now. It's all relatively new. And we're just gathering a tribe of people that want to do better. I have a lofty goal of seeding the world with a million more nonprofit organizations through utilizing these chains of social media to connect with the tribe of people that want to do something to help other people.

Tinsley 19:24

So, how do people, if they want to volunteer for teaching kids to swim, teaching kids how to work on boats, how to sail, how to how to work in powerboat, how to drive a powerboat.

Volunteering Skills That Kids Can Learn

Tinsley 19:34

Yeah, what how can they reach you?

Maui 19:35

So, streetwaves.org is how you get in touch with us. You'll see our volunteer forms and ways to contact us, but that's our website. And yeah, if it's you're someone that says, Yeah, I would love to help children, I have these skill sets and reach out to the book.

Tinsley 19:51

What are the skills you're looking for?

Maui 19:53

There's a volunteer form on the website that asks you for your skill sets to see where we could place the volunteers. Again, we're a smaller organization, we kind of work within a network. But if you are, let's say, a boat right, someone that knows how to do fiberglass work, someone that knows how to work on electricity on boats, various different aspects of boat maintenance, then yeah, you're welcome to volunteer. We bring a bunch of kids, we show them how to do these things, and these are careers that they can build for the rest of their lives.

Tinsley 20:17

So you you might have a course on electricity on the boat, AC, or fiberglass class, or engines.

Maui 20:25

Yeah, exactly. We get them in the engine room. This school year, we're gonna be painting the engine rooms on this boat, and kids are gonna be working within the marina. They've worked on these boats over here, they've worked on many of these boats in here already.

Tinsley 20:36

The engine guy?

Maui 20:37

We all do. So myself or the mechanic that works on the boat, he'll come in and do stuff. We want to rebuild one of these engines one day because one of them's been rebuilt. But the one that needs to be rebuilt runs better than the rebuilt one.

Tinsley 20:50

So they're just tell what kind of engine is that again?

Maui 20:52

So the engines on this boat are eight V71s. They are 1967, original engines.

Tinsley 20:58

What's the brand?

Maui 20:59

Detroit.

Tinsley 20:59

Okay.

Maui 21:00

Yeah, Detroit Diesel 8 V7s. Yeah. And if you'd like, I can show you around the boat a little bit if you'd like to see it.

Tinsley 21:06

And that's amazing that they've lasted that they've been well cared for.

Maui 21:09

They pulled it, took the floor out, pulled the engine out of the floor, and took it through the window. Yeah, they pulled it through the window with the crane. So they come in the window with a crane. Yeah, our last boat was a 32-foot Boston whaler that we use for offshore fishing. We replaced that engine as well. All the kids came into the boat yard, pulled the engine out. We all worked on rebuilding it and put it all back in.

Tinsley 21:28

How do they respond to you, the kids?

Maui 21:30

Oh, they love me. They do. They do. Father's Day, I just got showered with cards and gifts and accolades. They just love it. They're love they're children.

Tinsley 21:38

Well, how old are they?

Maui 21:39

So they're our organization that works with kids four years old to 24 years old.

Tinsley 21:43

24.

Maui 21:43

24. And the reason we work with kids to 24 years old is because 24 is the age that kids age out of foster care in Florida.

Tinsley 21:50

Really?

Maui 21:50

Yeah.

Tinsley 21:51

And plus you can catch them when they're starting a career. You can help them get started. Sure. You wouldn't want to cut them off at 18.

Maui 21:57

No, but yeah, because some of them we just run into at high school, right? And so in order to keep them around us, we'll keep them around to twenty four. And beyond if they work with us or things like that.

Tinsley 22:05

Now, is there any cost to the kids?

Maui 22:07

No. Never. My commitment when I started Street Layers was to be able to provide all of these services for children for free. Because

Recruiting Non Swimmers Without Shame

Maui 22:15

I know that many of these kids can't afford these experiences.

Tinsley 22:17

And do they ever look at you and go, What's the catch?

unknown 22:20

No.

Tinsley 22:20

They don't do that?

Maui 22:21

No, because It's funny too because yeah, there is a catch. The catch is I want them to learn how to swim, I want them to learn how to surf, and I want them to be comfortable around boats. And one of the ways that we've lured them in over the years is by feeding them really good food after school. Many of the kids are Haitian, so they have a really specific, delicious diet. So sometimes I hire some parents or Haitian restaurants to cater food for them. And the food is delicious. Or some Latin food, rice and beans and chicken, stuff that's tasty. Island food. Yeah, island food, absolutely. So yeah, that's been a really good way to get to us.

Tinsley 22:57

So how do the kids get in touch with you?

Maui 22:59

So we go to the high schools, we go to the middle schools, and we do presentations. And one of the ways we do it, so the school administrators will allow us to come into the school at an auditorium in the gym and do a presentation. So when I do the presentations, I first thing I do is I say, if you have the courage and you don't know how to swim, raise your hand. And you slowly start seeing hands up. And as the hands come up, you start seeing different kids laugh, and they're laughing at each other, and the hands are going to be. Oh, lots of hands go up.

Tinsley 23:28

Like more than 50% of the five years.

Maui 23:29

Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, absolutely. And because we work with Title I schools, work with kids who historically have been neglected, rejected, or protected from the water. So we go in there specifically to help these kids. And it's hilarious because initially the hands start going up slow, then their people get more comfortable and they're laughing at each other. Then I gather them all to one side of the building. And I say, you are the ones that we're gonna help. So if anyone here is brave enough to let us everyone know that you don't know how to swim, because this is how you save your life. Yeah, it's better to say you don't know how to swim today than jump in the water to prove to other people that you do and drown.

Tinsley 24:08

And why do you think they raise their hands?

Maui 24:10

Because it's a question. And if you're honest, the kids are taught to raise their hand, right? So if they're honest with themselves and with us, they'll raise their hand and say, I don't know how to swim. If they have a little prideful or the ego steps in, then they'll be a little resistant. And if they're completely ego-driven, they won't raise their hands at all. And those kids will are more likely to be more likely to drown because they don't think of the program. I sat on the drowning prevention council of Broward County for several years, and I got to see.

Tinsley 24:35

Wow, I didn't know there was a council.

Maui 24:36

Oh yeah, I got to see every drowning

The Hidden Scale Of Drownings

Maui 24:38

every month. It's you mean the average vapor with details. Police reports, everything. And the average at the time was about 40 drownings a month in Broward County. Now these things never reach the media. No one knows that these things are happening. But they are. Are they mostly tourists? They're tourists, they're babies, they're elderly. It just runs the gamut. We're talking about people drowning in the bathtub to people drowning in swimming pools or drowning offshore in the ocean, everything that happens in that county. In this particular time, otherwise it wouldn't be compiled. It would it would just be incidents, right? But the drowning prevention council compiles all this data, brings it before meeting, and then we talk about it every month. And I had to get off it, it was it really got to bother me out af after a while. You said 40 on the at the time I sat on the board, it was about 40 each month, average.

Tinsley 25:28

That's a lot. That's a lot of people. I mean, ours do hit the media, but it's nothing like that. Those numbers are nothing like that.

Maui 25:33

Yeah.

Tinsley 25:33

And it's usually people visiting. Yes, in the ocean, I was like, they don't pay attention to the flags that they put over.

Maui 25:40

Right, right. Well, this was for all the time. Oh, yeah, it's for it happens every day.

Tinsley 25:44

Your husband goes home without a wife.

Maui 25:46

Yeah, it happens every day. Every day. It's terrible. It is terrible. And that's why the work is so important.

Tinsley 25:51

Yeah. That is great work.

Maui 25:53

Yeah.

Tinsley 25:54

So tell me what you do on this boat. So this is owned by the nonprofits. Yes, but you live here.

Maui 25:59

I do. Yeah.

Tinsley 26:00

That's pretty sweet.

Maui 26:01

Yeah, it's smart. It works out for me and for

Delray Marina Liveaboard Boat Tour

Maui 26:03

the organization. It works out for the cops. The cops keep their boat here as well. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful. This is one of a few liveaboard marinas.

Tinsley 26:11

Oh, tell us more where we are.

Maui 26:13

So we're in Delry Beach at the Delry Beach City Marina. And it's a liveaboard marina. I waited on a list for five years to get a slip here. And it was worth the wait. It's a great location. A lot of loopers come here. Um and in the summertime, it's more availability in this marina than there is during the wintertime. But it's a great place. There's facilities here. I have all the facilities on board that I need here. But there's showers, there's laundry. It's just a wonderful place.

Tinsley 26:45

Alright, let's take a look at the boat.

Maui 26:46

Yeah, totally. Okay, so this is the main salon of a 1967 Hatteras 50 that has undergone a complete refit. The refit was done by a home builder. So he came in and used PVC throughout the boat. So there'll be no mildew, no rotting, and he did an amazing job. He did most of the work here. There was some assistance with some of our students and myself to get the boat to snuff. It's not extremely clean right now, but come on down below into the galley. We've put in two air conditioners here for the summertime. It's so hot to keep the main salon cool, and then there's also an air conditioner here that's a mini split that's connected to a condenser that's up in the upper helm. The controls are teleflex single controls, which of course you know back in the 60s, up into the late 90s, early 2000s, they would be all dual controls. So everything is telecontrol, single controlled here. And then this is where you do your videos. I do some videos here, some work here. This is a table here in the galley. And then cabin number one is forward here. Just kind of peek in there the light to see how that was done.

Tinsley 28:06

We have your washer. Is this a washer and a dryer?

Maui 28:08

It's a washer dryer unit by Samsung. It's incredible. I started wash a couple hours ago, and in one minute it'll be done washing and drying.

Tinsley 28:15

You've got this set up nice, nicely.

Maui 28:17

Yeah, put some little thing there. And there's also wet head here. Yeah. That's got all tiled, ceramic tiled on the walls, wiped in. Yeah. And then we put in whirlpool appliances in the galley.

Tinsley 28:38

Got a dishwasher?

Maui 28:39

Yep. Dishwasher here. Yeah. And then engine rooms here. We can show you those when we leave. And then you go aft. We have cabin members.

Tinsley 28:48

Where your daughters like to hang out?

Maui 28:49

Yes, and where the girls like to come out. And this is my buddy Yoda too on the mall is my old dog that passed away. He's a sweet little dog. So we keep Yoda on board with us as well. There's a hanging locker behind you here, too. It's a good size hanging locker. Wanna show in there.

Tinsley 29:08

Yeah. Nice.

Maui 29:10

And then moving aft. There's another pier, the shower.

Tinsley 29:17

And so you take kids out on this boat.

Maui 29:19

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Tinsley 29:20

What are you joking for overnights and stuff?

Maui 29:22

No, no, we just go offshore fishing during the day.

Tinsley 29:25

This is the captain's quarters.

Maui 29:26

Yeah, that one's quarters here. And it's nice to turn on another book.

Tinsley 29:30

It'd be nice to have this room on my boat.

Maui 29:32

Yeah, this room is wonderful, I have to say. This room is really nice. And there's a mini split air conditioner back here, too. That's what keeps this room cool.

Tinsley 29:40

Closet?

Maui 29:41

Yep. It's a really nice hang locker here, too.

Tinsley 29:43

So that's a lot of drawers. A lot of drawers over here.

Maui 29:46

Yeah, and most of this is all the original design of the 67 Hatters. They just refit a lot of it. We have these here. And what I love about these port lights is that they remind me of a sailboat. So being down here, I feel like I'm in a sailboat. I actually have these covered up, but they just bring so much light. I keep it dark here in the summertime just to keep it cooler.

Tinsley 30:10

And then here's the little bunk room.

Maui 30:11

Well, yeah, this is an interesting room too. This was bunk beds that I turned into a little bit of a garage. Otherwise, where else would you put the exactly? There's so much tough. So a lot of these tools will end up going in the engine rooms when we refit the engine rooms. Those are our last projects.

Tinsley 30:28

And these are portholes that go in there.

Maui 30:30

Yeah, those are neat.

Tinsley 30:32

Very cool.

Maui 30:33

So the idea was that you could see the kids there.

Tinsley 30:36

But they can see you.

Maui 30:38

And when you turn the air on and open these, it gets cold in there, too. Which is neat. And then I'll show you the engine rooms here. These are in the 8V's, they're hot. So we won't do this paint job in here until the winter time. It's just too hot to be in the summertime. So these are really big. These grills are wonderful.

Tinsley 30:57

Heat exchange.

Maui 30:58

Yeah. And there's two air conditioners that are coming in here. This is the air conditioner that is up in the main upper helm. This particular air conditioner is for that one. And then no, this one's for the one in the aft cabin. And then this one I install for the second cabin number two. So most of the cabins have AC except for the full.

Tinsley 31:21

This is amazing.

Maui 31:23

Yeah, these girls are really something. They're great to work on, easy to work on. There were 871 maps, the older filter, these are the breathers. This is a pump to pump up the fuel. So if ever you get air in the fuel, we just pump this here manually and it gets hair up. This is our cooler system here. And there's another bungee. So again it could be really hot. Especially with those ACs around me, too.

Tinsley 31:47

Yeah.

Maui 31:48

ACs make it really hot.

Tinsley 31:50

What's the name of the boat?

Maui 31:51

The boat hasn't been named yet. How long have you had it? I've had it, I've had it since September. We haven't named it. Taking suggestions? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's a bunch of names we've towed up, thrown around. 67. That became a big thing. 67. Because it's a 19. Please. That's what my kids said. All the kids was like, no, no name it's a good one. I mean, by next year it'll be over. That's what they said last year. It's still going on, I guess. I don't know. But uh she's been good to us so far.

Tinsley 32:20

How do people find you?

Maui 32:21

So you can find me at streetwaves.org. It's our YouTube channel that we're building out. There you'll learn more about what we've been up to. How do they donate? And you

How To Find Us And Donate

Maui 32:30

donate at streetwaves.org as well. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Tinsley 32:32

It's all what kind of payments do you take?

Maui 32:35

Everything.

Tinsley 32:35

Do you take PayPal and Venmo?

Maui 32:37

PayPal, Venmo. I believe that's on there as well. Yeah.

Tinsley 32:41

All right, if you want to help the kids.

Maui 32:43

Streetwaves.org. Streetwaves.org. And thank you so much. It's been a pleasure meeting you. I did go look at your channel. I saw some people on there that I know that I've seen that I've followed.

Tinsley 32:54

Okay.

Maui 32:54

And it's been great. So I thought this would be a good story for you.

Tinsley 32:57

You're episode 99.

Maui 32:59

Hey, there we go.

Tinsley 33:01

All right, I'm gonna start with that. Salty band and out.