The Pāʻia Sugar Mill finally closed in 2000, ending the era that started it all — but the town it left behind, home to only a couple thousand residents, is thriving on its own terms: a beloved, low-key surf-and-art town where windward surf culture and upcountry ranching mingle and, rare on Maui, it all still feels like old Maui. Our Pāʻia designs gather that spirit into wearable form. Pāʻia — Maui's bohemian sugar town, where the trade winds blow and the road to Hāna begins.
Pāʻia is a story of perseverance. A fire in the 1930s swept the town, and on April 1, 1946 one of the largest tsunamis in the islands' history struck Lower Pāʻia. Each time the town rebuilt. When the plantation began to wind down and central Maui grew, many families moved on to Kahului and Wailuku in the 1950s, and Pāʻia settled into a quieter era — smaller, weathered, and waiting for its next life.
Why People Visit Pāʻia
Pāʻia offers a whole mood in one small town: bohemian, barefoot charm, world-class wind and surf, and the romance of the open road to Hāna. It is the coolest little town on Maui — and for the artists, surfers and free spirits who live here, simply home, the place where old Maui still feels like itself.
