Local 'jumper' industry balloons
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Stephanie Anderson began saving for her son's first birthday party before he was even born.
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Anderson knows there's almost no chance that baby La'anui will remember anything from the keiki lu'au she threw for him Saturday.
Mahealani Baker, 3, of Kane'ohe took a breather while other party guests enjoyed the inflatable jumper at a birthday party at Ke'ehi Lagoon.
But that's not the point.
Despite Hawai'i's depressed economy and party expenses close to $7,000, she and her husband, Tani, and 200 of their closest relatives and friends vowed to keep alive the Island tradition of celebrating their child's first birthday in a big way.
The Andersons are among thousands of parents in the state who, despite the economic downturn since Sept. 11, are continuing to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars they can't otherwise afford on keiki lu'au.
But now the Andersons and others are marrying that longtime Hawai'i tradition to a modern-day twist: "jumpers" — those blow-up cages, inflatable monster trucks or cushy slides that the kids spend hours on.
The result has been a boon for O'ahu's inflatable jumper industry. Where other businesses have cut back expenses and laid off workers in recent months, the 20 or so inflatable jumper companies remain overwhelmed with customers.
"Let's see," said Jeff Renner, owner of the 3-year-old company Pump It Up. "Last Saturday, I turned away one, two, three, four, five. ... I turned away seven people. It's crazy, man."
Five years ago, four companies rented a total of five jumpers around O'ahu. Today, more than 20 companies rent out 100 to 150 jumpers, said Delbert Kim, owner of Xtreme Fun, one of the first and now one of the biggest jumper rental companies on the island.
The industry today is worth $2.5 million to $3 million a year, Kim said.
Like some of the other big party rental companies in the state, Xtreme Fun rents shave ice and popcorn machines, chairs, clowns and anything else to outfit a church fair or block party. But at least half of the business comes from working families who want to rent a single jumper for $100 to $200 for a birthday party or keiki lu'au.
"It's our bread and butter," Kim said. "The jumper is the standard for any birthday party."
Meredith Barone, a food server at Anna Miller's restaurant, and her boyfriend, Fabian Pereda, a cook at Bob's Big Boy, worry when they hear about layoffs. But that didn't stop them from hiring an inflatable monster truck jumper for their son, who is also named Fabian.
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"He's my son, and he only turns 1 once," Barone said. "I don't mind going out of my way to do what I can for him. I had a first baby lu'au. My brother had one. My cousins all had one. It's not like we remember anything about it, but it's a tradition."
Ronald Carvalho III and guests celebrated his first birthday in an inflatable monster truck at Ke'ehi Lagoon Park.
The origins of a lavish celebration for a baby's first birthday are difficult to trace in Hawai'i. Puakea Nogelmeier, an assistant professor of Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai'i, believes ancient Hawaiians organized celebrations to mark the progress of a child's first year and to "clear a pathway to the future."
Jonathan Osorio, an assistant professor at UH's Center for Hawaiian Studies, isn't sure whether any keiki lu'au existed before Western contact with the Islands.
New illnesses, particularly venereal disease, spread throughout the Islands "and had terrible effects on fertility," Osorio said. "Infant mortality was high and lots of couples had no children. So a child being born and a child reaching the first birthday really was a cause for celebration."
All Osorio knows for certain is that first birthdays have been celebrated with gusto for at least a century. Osorio threw keiki lu'au for each of his four children because, he said, "I needed to continue a tradition that has existed throughout my life."
Like Osorio, Nogelmeier believes that one of the main purposes of a keiki lu'au is to honor the people who shared in the child's upbringing. Last May, Nogelmeier helped pay for his godson's baby lu'au that cost thousands of dollars.
"It was a lot of money, and we didn't have a lot available," Nogelmeier said. "It was just important to say, 'thank you' and introduce this child to the broader network of the family."
It's not just first birthdays that are fueling a boom in jumper rentals.
At Morgan Achiu's third birthday party on March 3, the Tigger ring toss and pin-the-tail-on-the donkey games didn't even come out of their boxes.
The children ignored Morgan's presents and her mother, Racquel Achiu, nearly forgot about the birthday cake and singing "Happy Birthday."
"The kids did not come out of that thing for four straight hours," Achiu said of the jumper she had rented. "It's great because it gives the parents a chance to relax. It also makes for a real good night because the kids go to sleep early."
For Lloyd Mason, an auto mechanic in Wai'anae, times are tough. But he still had no hesitation about throwing a $1,500 birthday party — including renting a $260 slide jumper — for his 11-year-old daughter, Teneille.
"I would spend it again," Mason said. "She's my girl. She's my baby. She's my pride and joy. I could have saved money, but my daughter's birthday only comes once a year."
Or, as Ronald Carvalho Jr. said in explaining why he spent $800 for his son's keiki lu'au: "Hey, that's my son, man. That's my son. I'd do anything for my kids."
In the past 18 months, Kim said he has seen at least 10 new companies move into the jumper business. Most are one-person operations, he said, run by "weekend warriors" trying to earn some extra money.
There's still plenty of work to go around, Kim said, but he thinks some of the smaller operators won't last for long.
"Everybody thinks it's an easy business until you realize you have no weekends for the rest of your life," Kim said. "After a while, the wife gets tired of you working five days a week and then being gone on the weekends, too."
Henry Ribac spent $9,000 in 1998 for two jumpers for his daughter's birthday. He started renting them out for other kids' parties, invested nearly $200,000 in more inflatable jumpers and other party equipment and started expanding to school fund-raisers and church festivals.
In January Ribac finally quit his union job as a big-rig driver that paid $40,000 a year.
Today, Heather's Inflatables — named after Ribac's daughter — hires 12 independent contractors and Ribac's four brothers whenever he needs extra help.
"Business is up three fold what it was last year," he said. "Parents in Hawai'i go all out for their children, especially for that first birthday."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
