HGTV
Who Are ‘Renovation Aloha’ Stars Tristyn & Kamohai Kalama? Get to Know the HGTV Couple
Renovation Aloha is back for Season 2! The HGTV series, which features husband and wife duo Tristyn Kalama and Kamohai Kalama running a house-flipping business in Hawaii, returns on Tuesday, February 18.
Viewers fell in love with the Hawaiian couple and their extended family during Season 1 in 2024. Scroll down for everything we know about the Kalamas, including how they met and more.
How did Tristyn and Kamohai Meet?
Tristyn and Kamohai met in quite an unexpected way. He was working as a substance abuse counselor at a treatment center where Tristyn’s mom was the executive director. Tristyn’s parents had previously been treated at the rehabilitation center following an arrest for drug possession, and her mother was so inspired by her recovery that she took a job there afterwards.
Meanwhile, Kamohai, who’s been clean since 2012, was also previously treated at the center before becoming a counselor there himself. Tristyn was pursuing a career in mental health counseling and took on an internship at the center, which is where she crossed paths with Kamohai.
After getting the stamp of approval from her mom, Tristyn “slid into [Kamohai’s] DMs,” she revealed, adding, “The butterflies were instantaneous.”
Do Tristyn and Kamohai have kids?
Yes, the couple has two children: Yasiel and Vale. They have a ton of family members who live close by in Hawaii, including Kamohai’s 87 (yes, you read that right) first cousins.
“Our family is our backbone, our foundation, our support system. My brother is our project manager,” Tristyn told HGTV. “My mom is pivotal with the kids. My sister-in-law is a realtor and sells a handful of our houses when we decide to list them. Kamohai’s cousin owns and operates the landscaping company. When there’s a need, there’s no doubt the family will be there for us.”
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Ahead of Season 2, Kamohai teased to TV Insider, “When you do come from a humungous family, you can only imagine what those 87 first cousins do in everyday life. We haven’t been able to incorporate all of them into Season 1, but we’ve introduced some new family members who have some crazy skills and do some awesome, creative things into Season 2.”
What do Tristyn and Kamohai do on Renovation Aloha?
The show features the couple flipping broken down properties in Hawaii. They got started in real estate while they were living paycheck-to-paycheck. Tristyn saw a commercial for a real estate seminar and they attended it together.
“I feel we could probably spend a day talking about what real estate means to us. We always say it’s more than just four walls and a roof,” Tristyn told TV Insider.
They both have a specific role when it comes to house flipping. Kamohai is the one who hunts down and acquires the flip properties, while Tristyn is the designer.
Although they’ve been able to profit off of this, Tristyn and Kamohai’s No. 1 priority is giving back to their community in Hawaii. “It all comes back to the relationships we’re building with the people we’re buying the houses from. That is the most important thing,” he admitted. “On the show, we don’t buy ever house off the MLS. We’re cultivating these relationships and making sure these homeowners are getting everything they want out of the house.”
Renovation Aloha, Tuesdays, 9/8c, HGTV
