✉️ Travis at HBL.org

Travis Counsell

Executive Director

Many will remember Travis as HBL’s Events Director and Membership Coordinator for several years. Originally from Vermont, Travis most recently served as the Executive Director for the New England Mountain Bike Association. Previously, Travis was the owner and manager of Bikeadelic Hawaii, a bicycle rental & tour business in Waikīkī. He also received an MBA from the Shidler School of Business at UH Mānoa. In college, he rode his bicycle from Baltimore to San Francisco as a cancer research fundraiser. His favorite bike is his mountain bike, but you’ll also find him commuting to work, riding to Makapu‘u lighthouse, or grabbing groceries on his various other bikes!

Travis brings business knowledge, non-profit experiences, and a strong passion for bicycles to HBL. He looks forward to building the community of people who ride bicycles and elevating HBL’s presence across a variety of focus areas.

 

✉️ Malia at HBL.org

Malia k Harunaga

Director of Education

Malia has always loved riding bikes, and competed in keiki triathlons when she was little. She started teaching with HBL in 2013 after getting certified as a League Cycling Instructor by the League of American Bicyclists. Upon graduating from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, she joined the awesome crew that is HBL at the beginning of 2015. She is now a League of American Bicyclists Coach (one of 17 in the nation!) and could not be happier spreading the joy of cycling to everyone. She loves bicycling (fixed gear & road, competing & for leisure), trail running, photography, pastries, and pretty much all things pasta and potatoes. Malia is looking forward to bicycles taking over the world (or at least Hawaiʻi) in the near future!

✉️ Vincent at HBL.org

Vincent Levy

Director of Community Engagement & CRM Manager

Vincent has been biking since he was five years old. As a college student in Philadelphia, Vincent worked at Neighborhood Bike Works, a nonprofit youth bicycle education program. He later wrenched and taught DIY bike repair at the Bike Farm, a volunteer-run bike collective in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. In addition to commuting, grocery runs, and road rides, Vincent loves bike touring and has traveled through Mexico and Central America on bike. Vincent is always inspired by other cyclists. If you want to get more involved with HBL or just talk story about bikes, Vincent would love to hear from you! You can reach him at vincent@HBL.org, on the office phone at 808-735-5756, or by popping into the HBL office next time you’re in Kaimukī.
 

✉️ Chris at HBL.org

Christopher Salas

Events Director

Christopher first got into cycling when he moved from Southern California to attend the University of Hawai‘i in 2008. He bought a bike for commuting and soon found that the best way to explore the island was on two wheels. As his confidence on the bike grew, he wanted to challenge himself to greater and longer trials on the bike. Starting with the Honolulu Century Ride every year as his benchmark, he went on to complete multi-day bike tours across many states, climb up mountains from Tantalus to Haleakalā, and is always chasing segments and KOMs on Strava.

Chris has a bit of a competitive streak and was encouraged by friends to try his hand at running and later triathlons. Upon realizing his new love for running, he threw himself into the sport, completing several marathons and becoming board member of MPRRC and continues to be apart of their Race Organization Group. With many rides, runs, and triathlons under his belt, he achieved two personal goals in 2022: qualifying for both the Boston Marathon and Ironman World Championship in Kona.

 

✉️ Eduardo at HBL.org

Eduardo Hernandez

Advocacy Director

Eduardo’s passion for bicycling began as a child in New York City. His work as a community advocate began on the streets of San Francisco as an activist in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He would go on to champion public policy in diverse arenas including civil rights, health care, arts education, and civic participation in Sacramento, Washington, D.C., and Honolulu. Through all these years his bicycle has been a steady companion. He has cycled from San Francisco to Los Angeles four times, helped to launch a cycling-skills building program for underserved youth in NYC, and led hundreds of riders across four islands in seven days as part of the Paradise Ride in Hawaii.

He looks forward to working closely with community stakeholders, government agencies, and other advocacy groups to identify opportunities to improve cycling infrastructure and policies, address barriers to cycling in Hawaii, as well as support broader efforts towards safer streets for all users. 

Eduardo’s passion for bicycling began as a child in New York City. His work as a community public policy in diverse arenas including civil rights, address barriers to cycling in Hawaii, as well as support broader efforts towards safer streetsall users.

✉️ BikeEd at HBL.org

Shane McCarthy

BikeED Manager / Instructor

Shane likes commuting and working on his bike. He has also enjoyed tutoring and working in education. Shane is excited to combine these interests through BikeEd– sharing the great experience of biking with students and being a part of HBL!

Ed Prokopik

BikeED Team Instructor

With a background in teaching, and having done volunteer work for HBL, Ed jumped at the chance to share his love for cycling with keiki. A member of Tradewind Cycling Team, Ed is also an avid paddler, diver and skier. 

Jesse Kline 

BikeED Team Instructor

Ever since his red tricycle in Yellow Springs, Ohio at the age of six Jesse has been completely possessed with wheeled transport—especially the two-wheeled kind. He completed two AIDS rides from San Francisco to L.A. in the 1990’s, and even survived riding fixies in N.Y.C. in the 1980’s. Some of Jesse’s favorite bicycle memories are his daily rides over the wood planks of the Brooklyn Bridge, and riding the bike and ferry to work in San Francisco in the 1990’s. Jesse loves sharing the joy of cycling with kids. 

Joshua Taylor

BikeED Team Instructor

“I first got into cycling through the BikeEd program when I was younger, and it honestly changed the way I move through the world. There was something about learning to ride safely, feeling the wind, and navigating real streets that made me feel independent and capable. That experience stuck with me, so when I had the chance to join BikeEd as a staff member, I jumped in. I wanted to help other kids feel that same confidence. That moment when the bike clicks and they realize they can go anywhere. For me, cycling is about freedom, growth, and showing others what they’re capable of.”

Blair Whitted

BikeED Team Instructor

Blair found his first taste of freedom, as many kids do, behind the handlebars of a bicycle. Quickly he knew he had found his passion and has continued to pursue all that cycling has to offer ever since. In highschool he raced mountain bikes with the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, later becoming a coach after graduation. He went on to teach at Earn A Bike in San Antonio, Texas, where he was responsible for helping kids build their own bikes and teaching them how to ride. After moving to Hawaii he knew he must continue his advocacy and quickly found employment as a mechanic at a local bike shop and eventually with Bike-Ed, where he continues his mission to get more kids on bikes.

Devin Oishi

BikeED Team Instructor

“I started to ride better around 4th grade when my Dad taught my baby brother. Before that I had training wheels on an old schwinn stingray with a banana seat.
In college I started commuting between class and home- even in snow. I graduated with an art degree and returned to Hawaiʻi and kept commuting.
I joined the Heavy Breathers and did the fund raising rides for Lung Association and other groups. That was enough miles to do the century. The first one hurt but was mina afta dat. I met  bike racer Jim Bartels at Iolani Palace and joined him racing for Cambio.
Joined a bike shop and started wrenching part time. I got better at mountain biking. The shop got us sponsors that didn’t care how bad we were. . . I guess because we had one fast guy. I usually come in 3rd to last but once came in 3rd because someone yelled, “You are in the lead!”
The biggest ride was crossing the United States with the Lung Association fundraiser, “The Big Ride.” 3200 miles! Minus 200 ‘cause I went off course on a train to visit friends. And my leg went dakine on the way up the Cascades.
I did Bike Ed for a few months a few years ago. I was illustrating and writing my book, “I Like Ride Bike” about a monk seal that wants to learn to ride when a friend called and asked if I wanted to come back to help in Fall 25.
I still make art and commute by bicycle. Sometimes I transport an entire art exhibit in my panniers. I stopped racing though.”

Paula Bender

BikeED Team Instructor

An avid cyclist since she was four-years old, Paula grew up in South Jersey and rode her bikes everywhere: swim team practice at Riverdel, to her schools, while exploring the back roads of Burlington County, and to her job at the Delran McDonaldʻs. As a teenager, she escaped New Jersey and enlisted in the USAF. Following her first assignment as a computer operator at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, Paula was assigned to Hickam AFB and has lived in Hawaiʻi since 1981. She graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi in 1994 with a bachelorʻs degree in journalism. Now retired from her 30-year journalism career, Paula joined HBL in 2024 as a BikeEd instructor.
 
As many who follow her on STRAVA know, Paula does her own stunts and is a seasoned bike crasher. After having cracked 10 ribs, broken both of her collar bones, a pinky finger and a thumb over four near-death experiences on Hawaiʻiʻs roads, Paula has made it her mission to keep riding with Aloha sharing the roads of East Oahu with walkers, drivers, runners and other cyclists. Often riding solo, Paula also rides with her StinkinRoadies buddies, the Tradewinds Cycling team; and has fond memories of having completed three Honu triathlons on the Big Island and four Haleakala climbs with BocaHawaii. Paula and her husband John have two daughters, five cats, a chicken and a fish.
 

Sir Rufus ‘ohana Counsell
Director of Emotional Support

Will work for treats. Provides cuddles & wet kisses, but requires pets!

BikeEd@HBL.org

GET TO KNOW THE LEAGUE CYCLING INSTRUCTORS AT HBL!

Taking a cycling workshop with us? Awesome! You’re going to have a great time. All of our instructors have gone through a stringent 23-hour+ seminar to become nationally certified instructors by the League of American Bicyclists. To find more about the rigorous certification process, click here. To meet your wonderful instructors, read on!