Surfbreak

A co-living space with an outpost in Hawaii.

Luigi Mangione spent early 2022 at Surfbreak HNL, located along Oahu’s south shore and about a mile from Waikiki Beach.

Mangione arrived in January and left by mid-April, said Sarah Nehemiah, a 27-year-old producer and researcher. She stayed with friends there briefly in March, and then lived there from May to July, after he had left.

Surfbreak, which sits on the 40th floor of a Honolulu high-rise, boasts floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the water and bills itself as the “the first co-living and co-working penthouse for remote workers in Hawaii” on its website. Monthly rent for a twin bedroom starts at $1,605, while “king corner” rooms command up to $3,305, according to the Surfbreak website.

Nehemiah and her friends at Surfbreak believed Mangione had left “due to a lifelong back injury that was exacerbated by surfing and hiking… To our knowledge, nearly all members of Surfbreak from his tenure lost contact with him after he left.”

After his 2022 departure, he returned briefly to Hawaii in early 2023 to start a book club, she added, that some of her friends were members of.

“Several members left due to discomfort in his book choices,” she claimed. “The Unabomber Manifesto is what really pushed people over the edge.”