World famous US producer and DJ Steve Aoki took part in a variety of adventurous activities during his stay in Grand Cayman this week.
Aoki was on island as a guest performer at the Cool Out 2023 festival, and headlined the evening show to an intimate crowd at The Hive restaurant and bar on Thursday, 2 Nov.
While in Cayman, he enjoyed some freediving off Spotts Public Beach and took time to improve his skills in the emerging watersport of e-foiling.
Cayman underwater photographer Jason Washington, who joined Aoki during his dives, told the Compass that spending time with him was like hanging out with an old friend.
“That guy is one of the most approachable people that anybody will ever meet, especially with somebody with a profile as large as his,” he said.
He described him as “a very nice guy, very athletic, very outdoorsy, and very much on the go”.
Also joining Aoki during the day were freediver Coral Tomascik, and Jess and Alex Harvey, the children of artist Guy Harvey and Gillian Harvey.
Washington explained that Alex’s wife, music manager Jules Dougal Harvey, had helped to organise Aoki’s visit to Cayman.
Alex had reached out to him and Tomascik after the DJ said he wanted to go freediving.
“We took them down to Spotts, where it was flat, and took them out over the edge of the shallow reef,” he said. “He did a 45 foot breath hold, which was his deepest to date.”
Washington said Aoki enjoys freediving, but has not had any formal training, so he hopes that he will return to Cayman for some lessons.
After the session, the DJ invited them back to Palm Heights, where he was staying, to try some e-foiling, which they enjoyed, and a dip in a cold plunge tank.
But Washington was not as keen on the latter.
“I told him, I said, listen I put on a wetsuit to swim out to get my boat in this water. I am not getting in that tank,” he joked.
The photographer said he was glad to be able to link up with Aoki and have the opportunity to reach more people to start conversations about the ocean environment.
“I feel like my duty on this planet is to turn people on to ocean conservation issues through underwater photography,” he said.
“I can share an image that reaches tens or hundreds of thousands of people, but when somebody like Steve gets on board, and he shares the image, it reaches millions.”
Insta famous
Aoki posted about his Cayman trip on his Instagram page, which has 11.6 million followers, three times on Friday, 3 Nov. The posts received about 40,000 likes.
In his first post, Aoki shared photos and videos of a “midnight swim” in a pool at Palm Heights, relaxing in a sauna and jokingly fighting his way through tropical plants.
View this post on Instagram
He then shared photos of himself freediving with Washington and Tomascik.
“Dove down to 45 feet. Breath hold over 40 seconds. Personal record so far. Also checked-off Cayman Islands dive. Def won’t be the last there,” he wrote.
The post also included a video of Aoki trying out e-foiling with Douglas Cameron Jr of Cayman Adventure Water Sports.
View this post on Instagram
In a third post, he showed images and videos of himself exercising, taking an ice bath and of the Cool Out concert, which he captioned, “Grand Cayman adventures continue.”
View this post on Instagram
Mona Meade, who hosted Thursday’s Cool Out show, posted her own photographs and videos of the event.
It included a video of Aoki throwing a cake into the face of an audience member and of waving a giant Cayman flag on stage.
In her caption she said: “I am so grateful to have met a lot of amazing people including the legendary @steveaoki A really amazing night.”
View this post on Instagram
Related Videos
