By Sarah Sekula, published in ISLANDS magazine
If there’s one thing Jim Ward loves more than photographing Hawaiian spinner dolphins, free-falling into waterfalls and carving up waves in White Plains, it’s his girlfriend, Alicia Franco. If it wasn’t for this spunky bikini model, he wouldn’t be living in Oahu at all. Quick recap: Alicia was thumbing through the June 2010 of ISLANDS when she landed on page 22. There was her dream man (aka Jim). Toothy smile. Golden tan. Washboard abs. What’s a 21-year-old wahine to do? She tracked him down on Facebook, of course. Dozens of lengthy e-mails, photo texts and expensive phone calls later, Jim uprooted his life in the Cayman Islands and moved to Hawaii to live with her. It turns out that 4,719 miles can’t keep these two apart.
