Aloha ea okou Phaeton,
The aircooled VW scene here in Hawaii is really nothing like it was back in the 70's and 80's. There are still some of us die hard airheads around though. In the last 25 years or so, the intrest has been the Japanese cars, Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Subaru, and naturally water cooled VW's. I personally was away from aircooled for nearly 20 years and just last year decided that all this OBDII garbage was not for me any more. I work in a VW shop here in Honolulu and a customer was asking a reasonable price for her bug so I bought it and sold my GTI. Within hours my order for parts was in the mail. As soon as everything was delivered, I started building my engine
installing it as soon as it was completed. Since completion, I've been allowed to drive it, OCCASIONALLY, as my wife has laid claim to it. Thats ok because she can't build engines and needs me for maintenance and up grading.
At any length, there are still several clubs around and a few VW swap meets, all of which I try to attend, and a couple of shows every year. The scene isn't dead, it just slowed down.
Ainokea