2026 Hawai‘i Bicycling League

Executive Committee of the Board

Samantha Lara

PRESIDENT

While I initially approached biking as a sustainable mode choice, it has since become something more meaningful. Riding regularly has made me more aware of what it means to take up space and be visible in a system long designed around cars. Biking has become a political act—one that grounds my professional work in lived experience. It allows me to engage with communities from a place of lived understanding when I speak about safety, access, and how our transportation systems either enable or constrain choice. I have changed because of biking, and I am forever grateful for that. 
 
I have long admired the Hawaiʻi Bicycling League’s role as both an advocate and a connector—bringing together policy, education, and community in ways that feel grounded and inclusive. Through my work as Senior Community Planner at OʻahuMPO, I regularly collaborate with partners working toward safer streets, youth mobility, and mode shift, and I see HBL as a critical voice in that ecosystem. While my involvement has primarily been professional to date, I am eager to deepen my engagement through board service.
 
HBL’s commitment to cycling as a tool for health, equity, and everyday transportation strongly aligns with my values and lived experience. As a woman of color and a mother, I bring a perspective shaped by caregiving, safety concerns, and the desire for independence and opportunity for the next generation. My role in state government has also given me experience in community engagement, funding processes, and cross-agency collaboration—skills I hope to contribute in service of HBL’s mission. I am excited to be part of helping to advance a future where biking is safe, accessible, and normal for everyone in Hawaiʻi.

Patricia Johnson

Vice President

As a kid growing up in Southern California, I had an adult sized womens Schwin my Dad had adapted with wooden blocks on the pedals where I had to ride standing up. I would ride for hours with my buddies, free and without supervision. I still remember the joy of those rides! At age 62, in 2006, Lance Amstrong inspired me to get a bicycle, and needless to say, I got hooked. I have ridden 83,000 miles since then.

In 2007 I moved to Hawaii to care for my mother. I met some great people cycling in Hawaii who together with me started the Red Hot Ladies Cycling Club and two HBL rides, Monday’s Start the Week Off Right and Kailua for Brunch, that continue to grow in popularity. My interest in expanding the role of cycling in Hawaii took me to becoming a League Cycling Instructor, joining the HBL Board in 2016, and to currently serve as the Vice President of the Board and the Chair of the Fundraising Committee. The highlight of my week is welcoming new and renewing members of HBL and discussing the great work HBL is accomplishing.

Going forward I am committed to growing our membership and maintaining a robust Fundraising Committee. I will work with the board and our Executive Director to enhance the effectiveness and results of HBL for all of our members.

Andee Blackwell

Secretary

I am a daily commuter cyclist and have been cycling regularly for almost 20 years in multiple cities. I began biking in Honolulu over nine years ago, and while I loved the idea of commuting by bike, it initially felt challenging and, at times, unsafe. I often experienced close calls with drivers and was involved in one accident early on. Over time, however, I have seen a noticeable shift. Today, those experiences are rare, and I feel significantly safer riding on Oʻahu. That change has allowed cycling to become not just my primary mode of transportation, but a consistent source of connection to my community and environment. I also enjoy participating in local cycling events such as the HBL Century Ride in 2022, 2023, and 2025.

My involvement with the Hawaiʻi Bicycling League has primarily been as a beneficiary and supporter of its work, and I have enjoyed being a part of the Board so I can have a more regular involvement. I use Honolulu’s bike lanes almost daily and have directly benefited from HBL’s advocacy for safer streets, improved infrastructure, and greater public awareness around cycling. I hope to support the organization’s continued impacts on safer streets for all.

What excites me most about HBL’s mission is its focus on building safer, more inclusive communities through education, advocacy, and collaboration. Through my many roles in various levels of education, I am deeply committed to community engagement and long-term cultural change. Giving back to an organization that has had such a positive impact on my daily life feels both meaningful and necessary.

Julia Parsons

Treasurer 

Bike riding continues to represent freedom and friendship to me. As a child, having a bike meant
the ability to visit a friend’s house and ride in a pack around the neighborhood, unbeholden to
my parent’s availability or car. I picked up biking again in my mid-20s with the purchase of my
first hybrid. Jumping on one of the nearby Rails-to-Trails, I could transport myself from Virginia
to DC, Maryland, and even West Virginia in a day, immersed in nature instead of Beltway traffic.
My next purchase, a road bike, led to supported bike rides—favorites like the Fredericksburg
Cannonball Century, the Great Pumpkin Ride, and DC Bike Ride—as well as sprint triathalons,
all in the company of friends. I brought that bike with me on the plane in 2021, in recognition that
it could be weeks before my car arrived. The scenery is better now, but the story is the same: I
explore neighboring locales, compete in races, enjoy the snacks in supported rides, and pedal
around the neighborhood, this time with my ride group, the Sleep-in Beauties.

I began serving the state’s biking community as a member of HBL’s Board of Directors in
January 2026. I became involved with HBL shortly after I moved here—I figured participating in
packet pick-up would be an easier way to meet people than during the Honolulu Century Ride. It
worked! I began riding weekly with members of the Red Hot Ladies and leading the occasional
ride. HBL fosters respect for the biking community with its public-facing service events—like
helmet giveaways, bike path cleanups, and Zach’s Ride for Safe Streets—and I am glad to be
counted among its valued volunteer cadre. I particularly appreciate the space HBL creates and
holds for cyclists of every make, model, creed, and speed.

 

2026 Board Members

Gary Gill

PRESIDENT Emeritus

Born and raised on Oahu, I grew up in a bicycling family.  As the youngest child with 4 older brothers, I started riding an endless supply of hand-me-down, worn-out bikes. I was 10 years-old when Santa failed to deliver the new bike I asked for, so I used my savings to buy myself a used Schwinn Continental. I rode that bike until my senior year in high school. By then it was three sizes too small for me. My first advocacy action was joining kids from our neighborhood and attending the 1969 “Bike In” in Honolulu on my clunky one-speed. After the rally Downtown, the bunch of us pedaled all the way back up Tantalus.
 
I have served on the HBL board for the past few years including a term as board president. As a member of the City Council in the 1980’s I introduced and saw passed the measure that created the Bicycling Coordinator position for Honolulu. Much later, while working for a community-based nonprofit, I helped create KVIBE (Kalihi Valley Instructional Bike Exchange), an organization that continues to train and motivate young riders in urban Honolulu. As the State’s Environmental Health Director, I helped to secure public funding to start the BIKI bike share system in Honolulu.
 

HBL has grown and flourished in recent years, becoming an effective advocacy organization and community leader.  Making Hawaii’s streets safe for everyone and encouraging healthy transportation alternatives continues to motivate my involvement.  Let us all work together to make the Hawaii Bicycling League even more effective in fulfilling its mission.

Atomman Kimm

Cycling brings me joy and much of my life has revolved around it. I learned how to ride as a kid growing up in Liliha. I rode everywhere, to high school and UH then got introduced to the racing crowd.  I started riding with the racers and then became their race photographer. Racing came next and nothing I had ever done matched the thrill of riding and racing. Along the way I worked at The Bike Shop for a total of 11 years, in a variety of roles in two different stints. After masters swimming for a while, I got back on my bike to do the HBL Perimeter Ride with a couple buddies.  The cycling bug bit me again and I’ve been riding, racing and organizing Tradewind Cycling Team since.

For 20+ years, Bob Bengtson and I have been organizing the Course Marshals for the Honolulu Century and the Metric Century. Several years ago, I started volunteering as a photographer at the HBL Annual Dinner which has been fun. The late John B. Kelley convinced me to be to be on the HBL Board when we were almost insolvent years ago. We worked hard to keep HBL afloat, thank goodness it worked.

Since the 70’s HBL has been the mothership of cycling in Hawaii. At the same time, I’ve seen our state’s population more than double with a commensurate increase in traffic. Thanks to HBL’s advocacy our infrastructure for cycling has greatly improved. We have a lot of room to improve, no question, and I want to be a part of that for ourselves, our kids, our grandchildren and new residents. If there is one legacy that I’d like to leave, it is to continue the path to a time and place where cycling in this state is normalized, popular and as safe as possible.

David Sherman

Cycling does so much … Recreation. Transportation. Competition. Fitness. Adventure. Different folks with different spokes, from grade school to senior living. I found my life in cycling at a young age … from Sting-Ray to Varsity to Campy, I kept diving deeper. Commuting, racing, touring, traveling, and futzing around … I’ve dabbled in it all. I enjoy cycling for the joy and freedom that connects me to my inner child.

HBL has a broad mission to make cycling easier, safer, and better for all of us.

I’ve benefited from HBL’s work, and I want to play a role in HBL’s future. I moved to Hawai’i in 1986, fresh out of law school, living in Kailua. Soon after I arrived, I joined HBL group rides, rode the Century Ride, dabbled in road racing, and occasionally commuted over the Pali. I served as an HBL director in the mid-1990s, creating its first website and helping other cycling initiatives. And then …

I moved to Oregon … a crazy, fun place for cycling. Portland has a strong cycling culture, and I keep a couple bikes there. But life took a turn. Last year, I returned to Hawai’i, now living in Makakilo, working again Downtown. With Skyline, I occasionally use the bike/train combo to get to the office. I gotta admit … it’s getting better, all the time.

The HBL of today is an impressive evolution of what I knew forty years ago, and I look forward to its future. BikeEd brings passion and safety skills to students, cultivating the ridership of tomorrow. The Century Rides challenge us along the most beautiful roads in the world, in collective celebration. We must encourage cycling for our communities, Island-style, drawing from lessons around the world. The road stretches ahead, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Frank Smith

I caught the cycling wave in the early 1970s while stationed in Washington, DC in the Navy and have been riding it ever since. This was when America discovered the 10-speed bicycle with the ensuing bike boom. Laura and I were hooked!  By bike my 30-minute walk to work through a very sketchy neighborhood became 10-minute bike ride. The bike moves you 3 times faster than walking and uses only ¼th the energy. I was lucky to get hold of a low-end Kent 10-speed at the PX and had to assemble and tune it right out of the box which led to mechanical frustration. Seeking help at the overwhelmed neighborhood bike shop, a harried mechanic told me to buy “Anybody’s Bike Book” (over a million copies in print) by the late Tom Cuthbertson, and I would quickly learn to service bikes just as professionally as him. It worked, and I came to appreciate the wonderful appropriate technology of the bike. What else can you fix by yourself with a few inexpensive tools:  your car, computer, cell phone, washing machine—probably not, your bike—definitely yes. 
 
After two and a half years at the US forces headquarters in Seoul, Korea, where we did not own a car and lived off-base  we landed in Honolulu at the height of the OPEC oil crisis to start a new life.  Fist fights were breaking out in the long gas station lines. Wake up Hawaii! Get out of your car and onto a bike and/or public transportation. Oil is running out, your car is sucking up big dollars, you are getting fat and frail and the environment is suffering. A bike will help fix all these problems all at the same time. We started bike commuting, first from Makiki and later from the back of Palolo Valley to UH for me and to Punahou School for Laura. We joined the HBL in 1976 and did a painful 11 hour and 45 minute Century Ride. I discovered Effective Cycling, John Forester and the League of American Wheelmen. I became League Cycling Instructor # 72. I raced bikes and did triathlons. We road our tandem from San Francisco to Seattle. I became president of the HBL and started the Honolulu Advertiser Century Bike Ride in 1982. In 1984 I quit my good government job to open Island Triathlon & Bike which we were fortunate to sell in 2013 and retire. Currently I am heading up the bike repair function at the Honolulu Kupuna Shed where a happy crew refurbishes donated bikes and sells them to support the Shed and also gives some away to folks who truly need a bike for transportation and can’t afford one. 
 
I believe bikes can save the planet and do wonderous healthful things to all of us. Let us not forget that the very best thing about bikes is that they are FUN!  Saddle up!

Gregg Yates

Aloha! I’m Gregg Yates, and I hope you’ll consider me for a position on the board of directors for the Hawaii Bicycling League. A little about me: during the day, I work as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. I grew up in Mo’ili’ili, and graduated from ‘Iolani School many years ago before moving to the Mainland. I returned home to Honolulu about 10 years ago, and I’m back in my old neighborhood. 
 
I’ve been an avid cyclist for most of my life, and I did a lot of commuting on two wheels when I lived on the Mainland. It’s been a pleasant surprise to see how much has changed for the better for cyclists here in Honolulu. It has been particularly heartening to see the city and county invest in bicycle infrastructure and safety, for instance, by creating protected bike lanes along major commuting corridors in town.  
 
HBL has been an integral part in making these improvements happen. Over the years, I’ve supported HBL at several fundraisers and rides. In the future, I hope to assist with HBL’s mission to ensure that cycling is well-integrated into the state’s vision for a transportation ecosystem.  
 
To learn more about the Hawai‘i Bicycling League, view our HBL By-Laws.