I always love hearing people’s tiki origin stories. I find it fascinating learning the seeds and the steps a person has experienced on their way into the tiki lifestyle. This is one man’s tiki story. His name is Gregor, he’s from Germany and he asks…
Is Gregor into Tiki? What do you think?
Ray, you asked me how I got into tiki.
That is truly a hard question because I would say I love Tiki but I am not into it. Later more on that.
But first things first.
I tried hard to remember what kind of influences I had. I was born in the in the early 70s in West-Berlin.
I do remember that my parents were wearing tropical clothing at that time and we had a lot of bamboo decor and rattan furniture. What really awaken my interest was James Last Big Band featuring a singing saw version of Aloha Oe. The other thing that influenced me as a child was the gigantic wallpaper my aunt has in her living room. It shows an island beach with palm trees in the sunset. This photo wallpaper is back again today (a least here in Berlin). My dad had the book Kon Tiki and also books about Easter Island by Erich von Däniken.
Next major influence was that my mom brought me my first music tape. It was a very best of Elvis and my favorite song was and still is Rock-A-Hula.
So far it was more or less tropical influences (for Germans Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean, Florida or California is tropical too) but with visiting the Mabu-Hay in Cala dór Spain in 1983 a big step was made. The Mabu-Hay opened its door in 1982 and between 1983 and 1987 we visited this place in each summer holiday many many times. My parents could never remember the name right so for us it always is the Waikiki-bar and for me it will always be the bar of bars, the way a bar should look like.
It was exotic and it transported you into another world, but we had no clue that it is Tiki or a tiki bar or that there could be a whole style with this thing. Mum also brought me my first aloha shirt that I had until the mid 90s.
As a teenager in the late 80s and early 90s I slipped into the Rock-a-Billy scene.
Tiki and Rock-a-Billy and the US car scene going hand in hand here in Germany as you can see in the German movie Squeezed Up (but the film is in English!)
By the mid 90s I was through with it (Rock-a-Billy) for the next 15 years.
In 1993, I had a camping trip with a group of 18 friends from Miami to Toronto and back to New York.
This was all so impressive and new for us you just can’t imagine!
But the most impressing thing for my was the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was burned into my mind.
I had a friend who was a surfer dude and he took me on a surf trip to Fuerteventura (they also call the Spanish Island in Atlantic the European Hawaii). My favorite place to hang out in evening after spending the whole day in the water was the Waikiki Beach Bar (this time it is the correct name). It was a bamboo shack with a restaurant, bar and a small disco area but there were no Tikis in it. I always thought that the place was great but something was missing, and I had no idea what.
In this days, I also liked it old-school too so I was wearing aloha styled clothes and was listening to surf music from mostly the 60s and watched the Endless Summer movie 1000 times. I thought I was a vintage surf enthusiast because I just had no other word for what I liked. I was a very bad surfer but loved the tropical vintage style.
As time goes by things are changing. I was dating this girl……. Now she is my wife for so many years.
We did a lot of traveling. We visited surf spots in Spain and Portugal (I really love Portugal), we have been to Florida (sadly that at this time we had no idea that Tiki existed, especially the Mai Kai, we have been to Thailand and Sri-Lanker (the most tropical places we stayed at) and a lot of European countries.
In 2010, we were stranded at the European Harley Davidson bike week in Austria at Lake Faakersee. It was a one week party with concerts and 80,000 bikes and so many vendors. One of these vendors was a Rock-a-Billy magazine that was giving away free issues. I fell in love with Rock-a-Billy again but this time I stayed outside the scene and looked what was going on by using the internet and reading this magazine. In 2015, we were at Cuba (that is why I got permission to buy by me a 50s car (I got me a 54 Buick 2019 and now I drive a 54 Chevy kustom). During my research on US classic cars I saw two things, a small advertisement for a book called TIKIPOP and the YouTube channel of Duke and Lola Bossanova. I brought the book immediately. Then the pandemic started and I watched the channel and yours (Tiki With Ray) too and others as well. I saw all these places and was positively shocked and told myself this is it.
I am a Tiki fan.
So, things started growing, I started to discover Tiki on the internet and what was going around here.
Why do I say I am not into Tiki?
There’s not really a Tiki Scene here.
Your advice: Go to your local Tiki bar, join the local Facebook group, wear Aloha Shirts and meet other Tiki people.
Well I have worn Aloha style for many years (long before I knew what Tiki is) but no one ever asked me about Tiki.
I have been to all Tiki-ish places around, and never meet any Tiki fans, maybe because there is no real Tiki bars anymore. We had a Trader Vic’s in a Hotel but it was closed in 2009, long before I knew that it was a place I would have loved to have gone to. That is typical for us Germans, we just don’t go to bars in hotels we do not stay in.
The only Facebook group I could find is TIKI Deutschland, there are 311 People in the whole country?
So, I just do my thing. I do a lot of thrifting and try to go to as many Tiki places I can.
Next year we’re going to start with our own home (terrace)Tiki bar.
So yes, maybe I am into Tiki, or not? What do you think?
Gregor aka TikiTropic
Ray- HELL YEAH, You’re into Tiki!! I hope our paths cross someday.