Tom and Jennifer Hintnaus dance across the pavilion, her long blond ponytail whipping with every turn, his smile as charming as a movie star’s.
“You got this! Beautiful!” Jen called out to her acolytes, a group of devoted women who work out with them nearly every day.
If someone told you Tom, 59, was a famous Calvin Klein underwear model, you’d instantly believe it.
If someone told you Jen just turned 50, you’d go, “No way!”
The couple is gorgeously fit and infectiously energetic.
“She amazes me. She’s always going,” Tom said. “She gets down if she’s not running around and being active.”
Jen grinned. “I recently started doing hot yoga at 7 in the morning before I come to teach this class. I love it.”
“She’ll come home at the end of the day and want to go out dancing that night,” Tom said. “She doesn’t want to waste a day. Or an hour. Or a minute.”
Jen teaches Zumba, a high-energy dance workout set to Latin and pop music, 9 to 10 a.m. Sundays through Fridays at the Hawaii Kai Towne Center waterfront stage, an area behind Panda Express dotted with palm trees and lauae ferns and graced by a view of the ocean. She teaches there on Tuesdays and Wednesday evenings as well.
She’s there rain or shine, holiday or hurricane, except for Christmas. A small class is maybe 30 people, but there have been classes with as many as 90 students dancing in the morning sun. “In seven years of teaching here, I’ve maybe missed seven days,” she said. Usually, Tom is with her unless he’s working.
They both balance multiple jobs.
Jen has worked for United Airlines in reservations for 27 years, a job she now does from her house. Tom has a business building docks for homeowners along the Hawaii Kai marina. “My workshop is a barge that I move from house to house,” he said. “I joke that my commute is ridiculous with all the duck traffic.”
They own an ATM business on the Big Island that Tom services once a week. On top of that, Tom, who competed in the 1984 Olympics, coaches track and field — specifically pole vault — for Punahou. “For pole vault you have to practice year-round because it’s so technical,” he said. Their daughter, 18-year-old Tommi, is a pole vaulter at Arizona State University.
And yes, he models. He also acts. Tom, who grew up in California, was the first Calvin Klein underwear model in a truly iconic 1982 ad campaign that included his image on a famous Times Square billboard. “I started doing commercials when I was in my 20s,” he said. “And the print ads. I did some B-movie horror films.” He had a role on “Hawaii Five-0” a few years ago. “I was a bad guy, a Russian killer.”
“His trailer was right next to Carol Burnett’s trailer!” Jen said.
Jen, also originally from California, played soccer in school and grew up as a self-described “gym rat,” taking aerobics and various fitness classes from a young age. Tom was the one who convinced her of the benefits of getting out of air-conditioned studios and taking her classes outside.
“It makes a huge difference,” she said, “The ocean air, the breeze from the mountains, you get all that mana.”
They both say the companionship of working out in a group is important to overall health. “We get to be such good friends,” Jen said of her students.
Tom also surfs and loves a game of pickup volleyball. Sometimes he’ll put a net up on the grass near Roy’s Restaurant in Hawaii Kai and just start up a game with whoever stops by. At Zumba, though, he looks less like an Olympic athlete and more like a “good sport.”
“The students say they don’t watch me. They watch Tom. They think he’s hilarious,” Jen said.
“I’m the comic relief up there. I’m the funny guy,” he said.
They both say they aren’t overly particular about diet, though Tom said he tries to eat less now that he’s getting older. “If I eat too much, I really feel it.”
In terms of a philosophy for staying healthy and active, Tom said, “Make it a lifestyle. Consistency is key.”
“Working out four times a week is good,” Jen said even though for her it’s every day and sometimes several times a day. “And do something you love to do.”
“If you love it, you’ll stick with it,” said Tom. “And I would say, as you get older, push harder. Do more. As you age, all the more reason to take care of yourself.”