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Hawaii high schools are still working on forming their own surf teams for spring competition, but all five athletic leagues will be represented at America’s first statewide surfing championships on Maui May 1 and May 2.
Coaches will be certified in water safety in January and surf competitions will begin sometime in February, culminating in the boys’ and girls’ championships on Maui, Keith Amemiya, head of Gov. Josh Green’s sports task force, told journalists at the state Capitol Monday.
The new league competition represents the first statewide surf championship event in the country, according to Green’s office.
While it’s unclear how many of Hawaii’s 95 private and public high schools will form teams next semester, Amemiya said he expects most schools to participate.
“It’s going to be a true, full-scale state sport with all five leagues participating, ” he said.
Home-schooled students so far won’t be allowed to participate. But Green said he hopes the Legislature passes future bills to allow home-schooled students to join teams at their neighboring high schools.
Especially after the isolation of the COVID-19 era, Green said, “we want to reconnect them.”
Sports leads athletes to perform better in school, graduate at higher rates and helps prepare them for future success and higher-paying jobs, Green said.
Essentially, Green said, participating in high school sports teams “sets the kids up for the future.”
Green encouraged people from across the islands to travel to the first statewide high school surfing championships at Ho ‘okipa Beach Park as part of on-going efforts to help Maui rebuild and encourage Maui tourism following the devastating Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires that killed 102 people, decimated Lahaina and brought Maui’s tourist-based economy to a near standstill.
The new surf leagues represent years of unsuccessful attempts to fund high school surf teams in the face of a long list of opposition from critics.
But the Legislature finally approved $685, 000 during its last session to allow high school surf leagues.
Green was joined at the state Capitol by Carissa Moore—Hawaii’s five-time world surfing champ and 2020 Olympic gold medal winner ; and Kylie Sato, a 16-year-old junior on Leilehua High School’s surf team who formed Leilehua’s surf “club ” as a freshman.
Moore said she wished her alma mater, Punahou School, had a surf team while she was in high school and otherwise had to run extra laps around Punahou’s track to pass her physical education requirements.
Sato told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser later that her 22-year-old brother, Hunter—who helps coach the Leilehua boys’ and girls’ surf teams—“is jealous ” because he wishes Leilehua had a team when he was in high school.
Kylie prefers riding long boards but remains willing to ride short boards and body boards if her team needs her.
She rides boards made by her brother—a board shaper at T &C Surf Designs.
Already interest continues to grow at Leilehua since Green signed Act 141 into law and more girls are already outnumbering boys in signing up to compete, Sato said.
Green suggested Monday that organized high school surf teams may help reduce incidents of youth drownings, referencing a report by Hawaii’s new Water Safety Coalition that found drownings for local children ages 1 to 15 represent “the foremost cause of death.”
But state Rep. Sean Quinlan (D, Waialua-Haleiwa-Punaluu ), who represents Oahu’s North Shore and grew up in a family of surfers, said this year’s legislation creating statewide surf teams was the result of years-long rebuttals of concerns including shark attacks, costs and other criticisms that were refuted by the experiences of the Maui Interscholastic League that’s had its own surf teams for 10 years and informal clubs long before.
Based on Maui’s experience, Quinlan said, “It’s probably the safest high school sport we have.”
He called insurance for high school surf teams “exceedingly cheap.”
Quinlan hopes the creation of high school teams for public and private schools across the islands encourages students “who aren’t strong swimmers ” to get more proficient, comfortable and confident in the ocean.
Their coaches have to be certified and each surfer has to pass a junior lifeguard program.
Maui’s experience over the last 10 years, Quinlan said, “showed us the way. They led the way.”
Kim Ball, the organizer and co-coordinator for the Maui Interscholastic League surfing league, suggested that Maui’s waters are now safer because “we’re also creating 150 more lifeguards in the ocean ” on Maui.
Hawaii’s first statewide surf leagues follows this year’s successful launch of Hawaii’s first high school girls’ flag football teams that were broadcast live and will be followed by junior varsity flag football teams and even more players, said Amemiya, the former executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association.
In the first year of organized flag football competition, over 1, 000 girls suited up and their numbers could double next season with more varsity and junior varsity teams, Amemiya said.
He expects interest in high school surfing leagues to similarly grow.
The money funded from the Legislature will help cover transportation and the cost of running meets, Amemiya said.
But corporations also have expressed interest in participating as sponsors, he said.
Green said the interest in organized, competitive high school surfing and girls flag football could lead to Hawaii hosting other sports competitions from mainland competitors, which he called sports tourism.
Sato said she did not think her dream of formal surf leagues would become reality while she was at Leilehua.
Now that it has, Sato is encouraged by the excitement—especially among girls who currently outnumber the boys in representing their school on the ocean.
She called Monday’s announcement of the first statewide high school surfing championships “truly so surreal.”
She addressed her parents, who were gathered in the Capitol, and said to her mother, Joslyn : “Mom we did it. We did it.”
Continue reading...
Coaches will be certified in water safety in January and surf competitions will begin sometime in February, culminating in the boys’ and girls’ championships on Maui, Keith Amemiya, head of Gov. Josh Green’s sports task force, told journalists at the state Capitol Monday.
The new league competition represents the first statewide surf championship event in the country, according to Green’s office.
While it’s unclear how many of Hawaii’s 95 private and public high schools will form teams next semester, Amemiya said he expects most schools to participate.
“It’s going to be a true, full-scale state sport with all five leagues participating, ” he said.
Home-schooled students so far won’t be allowed to participate. But Green said he hopes the Legislature passes future bills to allow home-schooled students to join teams at their neighboring high schools.
Especially after the isolation of the COVID-19 era, Green said, “we want to reconnect them.”
Sports leads athletes to perform better in school, graduate at higher rates and helps prepare them for future success and higher-paying jobs, Green said.
Essentially, Green said, participating in high school sports teams “sets the kids up for the future.”
Green encouraged people from across the islands to travel to the first statewide high school surfing championships at Ho ‘okipa Beach Park as part of on-going efforts to help Maui rebuild and encourage Maui tourism following the devastating Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires that killed 102 people, decimated Lahaina and brought Maui’s tourist-based economy to a near standstill.
The new surf leagues represent years of unsuccessful attempts to fund high school surf teams in the face of a long list of opposition from critics.
But the Legislature finally approved $685, 000 during its last session to allow high school surf leagues.
Green was joined at the state Capitol by Carissa Moore—Hawaii’s five-time world surfing champ and 2020 Olympic gold medal winner ; and Kylie Sato, a 16-year-old junior on Leilehua High School’s surf team who formed Leilehua’s surf “club ” as a freshman.
Moore said she wished her alma mater, Punahou School, had a surf team while she was in high school and otherwise had to run extra laps around Punahou’s track to pass her physical education requirements.
Sato told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser later that her 22-year-old brother, Hunter—who helps coach the Leilehua boys’ and girls’ surf teams—“is jealous ” because he wishes Leilehua had a team when he was in high school.
Kylie prefers riding long boards but remains willing to ride short boards and body boards if her team needs her.
She rides boards made by her brother—a board shaper at T &C Surf Designs.
Already interest continues to grow at Leilehua since Green signed Act 141 into law and more girls are already outnumbering boys in signing up to compete, Sato said.
Green suggested Monday that organized high school surf teams may help reduce incidents of youth drownings, referencing a report by Hawaii’s new Water Safety Coalition that found drownings for local children ages 1 to 15 represent “the foremost cause of death.”
But state Rep. Sean Quinlan (D, Waialua-Haleiwa-Punaluu ), who represents Oahu’s North Shore and grew up in a family of surfers, said this year’s legislation creating statewide surf teams was the result of years-long rebuttals of concerns including shark attacks, costs and other criticisms that were refuted by the experiences of the Maui Interscholastic League that’s had its own surf teams for 10 years and informal clubs long before.
Based on Maui’s experience, Quinlan said, “It’s probably the safest high school sport we have.”
He called insurance for high school surf teams “exceedingly cheap.”
Quinlan hopes the creation of high school teams for public and private schools across the islands encourages students “who aren’t strong swimmers ” to get more proficient, comfortable and confident in the ocean.
Their coaches have to be certified and each surfer has to pass a junior lifeguard program.
Maui’s experience over the last 10 years, Quinlan said, “showed us the way. They led the way.”
Kim Ball, the organizer and co-coordinator for the Maui Interscholastic League surfing league, suggested that Maui’s waters are now safer because “we’re also creating 150 more lifeguards in the ocean ” on Maui.
Hawaii’s first statewide surf leagues follows this year’s successful launch of Hawaii’s first high school girls’ flag football teams that were broadcast live and will be followed by junior varsity flag football teams and even more players, said Amemiya, the former executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association.
In the first year of organized flag football competition, over 1, 000 girls suited up and their numbers could double next season with more varsity and junior varsity teams, Amemiya said.
He expects interest in high school surfing leagues to similarly grow.
The money funded from the Legislature will help cover transportation and the cost of running meets, Amemiya said.
But corporations also have expressed interest in participating as sponsors, he said.
Green said the interest in organized, competitive high school surfing and girls flag football could lead to Hawaii hosting other sports competitions from mainland competitors, which he called sports tourism.
Sato said she did not think her dream of formal surf leagues would become reality while she was at Leilehua.
Now that it has, Sato is encouraged by the excitement—especially among girls who currently outnumber the boys in representing their school on the ocean.
She called Monday’s announcement of the first statewide high school surfing championships “truly so surreal.”
She addressed her parents, who were gathered in the Capitol, and said to her mother, Joslyn : “Mom we did it. We did it.”
Continue reading...
