Making Waves
Expect the unexpected. Similar to the ocean’s waves, life ebbs and flows at varying speeds and levels of intensity. In life, the unexpected is a given. It’s what we do in the face of uncertainty that defines us. Much like the ocean, the way of the cowboy is a force to be reckoned with. Powerful, mysterious, and disrupting the norm in a rebellious spirit to embark on a life that truly matters, this is a story of incredible people embracing the unexpected and challenging themselves to make waves.
Island Ranching
Among the unexpected tropics of Hawaii, the rugged rodeo lifestyle thrives. Unbeknownst to most, the history of cattle ranching and rodeo in Hawaii is older than the Wild West. In 1793, cattle were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands and placed under the protection of King Kamehameha I. Two decades later, six cows and one bull grew into a wild and dangerous herd that had free reign over the land and villages. The King released his protection allowing the cattle to be captured, and the legacy of the Hawaiian cowboys called paniolo was born. Today, cowboy and rodeo life in Hawaii remains as strong as ever.
On the island of Kauai, rodeo culture runs rampant with rodeo athletes and working cowboys on horseback as the Pacific Ocean crashes on the sand below their feet. Karin Carswell Guest runs Princeville Ranch, one of Hawaii’s oldest cattle ranches, keeping the traditions of ranching alive and deeply intertwined with Hawaiian culture. On the opposite side of the island, third-generation Hawaiian cowboy Jimmy Miranda, who has been roping and breaking horses his entire life, started CJM Stables with no running water or electricity and built a paradise for horses and rodeo events where he shares his paniolo roots with every visitor.
Under Water
The livelihood of ranchers depends on a balance between flood and drought. All living beings, from cattle to crops, need a reliable flow of water to survive—but not enough or too much at once can destroy communities.
As a third-generation cowboy, Delon Parker lives in this make-or-break world built by bold ranchers who dared to work through the uncertainty. He and his sister Elle, a state cattle brand inspector, sustain their ranching heritage and help feed the nation in the face of unpredictable weather conditions.
Changing Tides
Slow and steady, Ian Munsick’s ranch life in the heart of
Wyoming—surrounded by reliable neighbors, a firm cowboy culture, and a Western landscape of open skies, canyons, and prairies—was like a calm moving river. Majestic yet foreseeable. Raised by a fiddle player, at nineteen Ian pursued a music career in Nashville, a vast ocean in comparison to home.
Despite the polarizing differences between Ian’s life in Big Horn and in Nashville, including skyscrapers obscuring the horizon, the vulnerability that comes with writing music and performing, and the unpredictable future every aspiring artist must face—Ian found a way to bring Wyoming to Nashville, merging the rugged spirit of the Big Horn cowboy into the sea of Nashville sound from 1,500 miles away. Today, when thousands fill an arena to experience Ian perform, the lyrics they hear flow from the depths of Ian’s passion for Wyoming, written metaphysically under a starlit sky on his Wyoming porch.
