Sandy likes living at Kim’s ranch. There is never a dull moment. There are always many students learning and performing exciting stunts. Film companies also come out to his ranch to shoot a few scenes or an entire film. Others who visit are celebrities, producers, directors, stuntmen, and martial artists. There’s always many writers and reporters who come to interview him.
In 1994, a few members of the National Geographic Magazine for Kids come out to his ranch. They are there to author a story about him and his stunt school. A few months later, he and his stunt school are featured in their magazine.
In 1996, Teens Bay Area Connection, a multi-award winning, cable television series, conducts one long interview with Kim. The interviewer is a sixteen-year-old member of Teens Bay Area Connection. Kim has been interviewed about six hundred times, but this will be the first time that a teenager will conduct an interview with him.
The interviewer begins by asking Kim about his roles as a stunt coordinator and stunt director on The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo TV series. The interviewer is impressed by Kim’s answers. He then shifts gears and jokingly asks, “When you aren’t performing dangerous stunts as a stuntman, do you ever get injuries like stepping on a nail or slipping in the tub?”
Kim laughs and says, “I’m not superman. I’m human; of course, I do. In fact, I had one this morning. My dog, Dino, left a sharp-edged half-eaten bone on the rug close by my bed. I didn’t see it when I woke up and ended up with a bruised toe.”
The interviewer replies, “Ouch. I bet that hurt, but that’s not too bad. Did you ever have a more severe injury when you weren’t performing a stunt?”
Kim becomes quiet for a moment before he answers. Then he says, “One time I was on a big plane with about one hundred and twenty passengers on it. We were headed to Texas. The plane crashed, and thirty-four passengers died. I walked out of that plane with two broken arms. After the crash, I had a cast on each of my arms.”
The young interviewer is shocked. He says, “You suffered two broken arms? That is a bad, bad injury.”
Kim responds, “Not compared to dying, like many of the other passengers did.”
The interviewer excitedly blurts out, “You dodged a bullet. You must have had somebody up there watching over you!”
Kim slowly responds, “Maybe I did. I don’t know.”
The interviewer regains his composure and quickly says, “You’ve done a lot of dangerous, death-defying stunts. Why do you think you beat all the odds and are still alive?”
Kim looks straight into the interviewer’s eyes. “You want to know why I’m still alive?” he challenges. “It is because I am afraid all the time. Anyone can learn to leap thirty feet from a tower, but the real question is, who can do it safely? I am obsessed with following safety procedures. If I wasn’t, I would have been dead years ago.”
After the interview, the producers of Teens Bay Area Connection ask Kim if they can take a tour of his stunt school next month. Kim says yes and that he’ll also teach them some stunts. When the kids hear this, they shout, “Hurrah!” in unison.
A month later, TBC producers and the teenage students arrive at Kahana’s Stunt School. Sandy greets them and tells them that Kim is the stunt coordinator on an upcoming commercial. She tells them that he is with his stuntmen over by the motorcycles. Then she asks them. “Do you want to follow me over there to watch them?” They all say, “yes.”
The students watch Kim set up the stunt and then escape on his motorcycle from a fiery explosion. Then they watch as another stuntman jumps from a trampoline and leaps onto the roof of a speeding car.
Then Kim takes them on a tour of his stunt school. He asks them, “Who wants to try to leap from the high-tower?” They all want to do it. They spend the next few hours learning to jump from the high-tower. When it’s time for them to leave, they cannot stop talking about the awesome day that they had.
Kim continues to do films and worthwhile educational projects that help kids. Avid Communications contracted him to be their stunt coordinator of a mock crash in “Graduation DUI” for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Chicago. Many other producers from all over the country call Kim to be the stunt coordinator on similar types of films that strive to make a difference and educate the young.
Kim is busier than ever with his school, movies, tv shows, commercials, seminars, and location shootings at his ranch. In 2001, he and Sandy finish the film, Jeepers Creepers. Kim is now looking forward to his two-day seminar with his friend, Yamishita.
Five months later, Kim receives some sad news. His mentor and good friend, Freddie Letuli died on July 22,2003. When Freddie returned to American Samoa, he became the Assistant Director of Tourism. He was also a Senator in the Legislature of American Samoa and an Associate Judge in their High Court. Kim is mourning his death, but he is also grateful that he was a small part of Freddie’s life.
Then in January 2005, Kim gets a phone call from Zig Zag Productions. It’s a reality TV production company in London. They want to shoot a teaser for a reality television show about Kim and the Kahana family. Kim agrees to their terms.
Then Zig Zag Production’s staff and crew take a plane from London to Kim’s ranch. The production company films him and his stunt school. When the filming is finished, the production company, along with Kim, and Sandy fly to Los Angeles. When the production company arrives in L.A. they go to Kim’s son’s home and film Kim and his kids: Tony, Rick, and Kim Kahana Junior, who are all renowned stuntmen.
Kim and Sandy fly back in January and have a layover in Las Vegas. They decide to look around Vegas for a while.
When they’re in a casino, they take an elevator down to the first floor. There is a young man in the elevator with them. Kim doesn’t care who is listening to what he is about to ask Sandy. “What do you think about getting married?” he asks.
Kim tells her that he already received permission from her mother, and Sandy says yes. The young man in the elevator says, “Congratulations.”
Then Kim and Sandy go outside and hail a cab to go to City Hall to get their marriage license. They have the license, but don’t get married yet. The date is January 19th, and they both want to wait until January 20th. They want to get married on the same day that they met on the set of Passenger 57.
It is finally midnight, January 20th, 2005 and they hail a cab to take them to the Little White Chapel. During their cab ride to the chapel, they formed a friendship with their cab driver. They bonded with him so much that he became their witness at their wedding.