Kuau is the name of a bay and a small residential village on the Hana Highway, on the outskirts of Lower Paia, as you're heading towards Hana.

During the early 1900s the rocky point that now houses most of the Kuau residential community was the home of an elderly man named Ako. He was the oldest person living in the area and local fishermen called the point by his name. A channel through the middle rocks in the middle of the point is still known as Ako Channel. Ako was buried on his property next to two other family graves. These graves, along with all traces of the ruins of a small fishing shrine that stood on the property, were eradicated when the lot was bulldozed for the construction of a private home.

The Kuau area has a number of beaches that are favorites of surfers and windsurfers. The most famous of these is Hookipa Beach Park, the original home of contemporary surfing on Maui in the 1930s. At one time, the Hookipa park had many hau trees and a wide white sand beach. The tsunami of April 1, 1946 completely changed the natural features of the park, ripping away most of the hau trees and the sand, leaving behind little more than a strip of white sand behind a wide rocky shelf. The high sea wall that borders the seaward edge of the park was constructed to prevent further erosion and damage.

In the early 1960s a second Hookipa Surf Club was founded on Maui, under the guidance of Barbara and William Meheula. The club became an influential youth organization and participated in community service projects and started a number of surfing events. The youngsters in the club were the first to surf (and name) the now-world famous spots like Hot Sands, Lone Palm and Pine Tree.

In the early 1970s, a new ocean sport called windsurfing caught the imagination of the wave riders. By the 1980s the international windsurfing community had discovered the wind and waves of Maui. They found Hookipa, which has been called the Windsurfing Capital of the World.