High school surfing’s day finally arrives after long struggle

PAIA, Maui >> After more than a decade of roadblocks, no one was going to let a few late flights put a damper on the first ever state high school surfing championships the day before they start.

“They’ve been graciously working with us,” Waialua coach Rain Magyar said, as the Bulldogs wrapped up practice at Hookipa Beach Park on Thursday afternoon, in preparation for the HHSAA contest that starts this morning and continues with finals Saturday. “Some of our boards got delayed, too, but it all got worked out.”

The five leagues were assigned specific two-hour time frames for practice Thursday, but at least two schools — Waialua and Punahou — were late because of flight delays.

Magyar said it was important for his athletes to spend as much time in the water as possible. The north shore of Maui is different than the north shore of Oahu that the Bulldogs are more familiar with.

“The ocean has so much uncertainty,” Magyar said. “So all of the experience you can get helps. And it’s been tough for us because of the recent floods. We couldn’t go in the water for 40 days, so we had to get creative with training.”

Waialua overcame the challenges to win the inaugural Oahu Interscholastic Association girls championship. Rival Kahuku won the boys meet at Kewalos last week, but Waialua had the most combined points.

With one of the lowest enrollments in the state, Waialua is an example of a small school that has a chance to win surfing championships. Also, it is very near one of the world’s surfing hotbeds, Haleiwa.

“The camaraderie and the discipline is getting everyone excited,” said Magyar, who moved to Hawaii right after high school in California to surf in Hawaii and never left. “It’s great that we’re representing the culture. The kids have been working so hard, everyone involved has. Most of the kids all know each other, and there’s a pecking order, but representing their schools is making it special for them.”

It is fitting that Maui hosts the first state meet, because the Maui Interscholastic League is the only league that has held school-sanctioned meets and championships since they were allowed more than 10 years ago. Also, the Valley Isle deserves any kind of good vibes it can get, as it continues to recover from the deadly Lahaina wildfires of August 2023. Plus, good news in sports is more than welcome after the PGA indefinitely canceled The Sentry at Kapalua, and the Maui Invitational basketball tournament is on shaky ground. Hosting a high school surfing meet can’t replace the millions of dollars at stake in those events, but it definitely provides an emotional community boost — especially after such a long, arduous battle to make it happen.

“This is a day many of us thought might never come,” HHSAA executive director Chris Chun said. “But it’s finally here.”

Many deserve credit for persevering, but one name keeps coming up again and again.

“Kim Ball is a legend,” HHSAA surfing coordinator Davin Kazama said. “The MIL has been very helpful and collaborative, sharing their knowledge and leadership.”

Ball is also known for coaching wrestling at Lahainaluna. But now, he’s the go-to guy for high school surfing. He and others on Maui showed it could be done … and he kept doing it, even after his and two of his sons’ homes in Lahaina were destroyed by the fires.

“For me MIL surfing was good for my mental health. It took my mind off what the fire did to our whole town, not just our family,” Ball said.

Ball’s three sons are watermen, wrestlers and scholars. Bailey is an Air Force lieutenant colonel who will surf in the All-Military Classic at Barbers Point in June. Blake played football and wrestled at Lahainaluna. Cody was a swimmer, and paddles for Napili Canoe Club. Blake (2006) and Bailey (2010) were Lahainaluna’s scholar-athletes of the year.

Ball said his wife, Cindy, deserves plenty of credit for taking care of other important things while he runs his surf gear stores (one of which burned down) and works on organizing surfing.

“She’s dealt with the brunt of our rebuild and dealing with insurance,” he said. “Fortunately she’s visiting grandkids this week in Oregon, so I don’t feel so guilty coming home late and leaving at dawn (for the HHSAA surf meet).”

In the early years, when club surfing for teens preceded MIL competition, “We attended multiple state school board meetings back in the day, lobbying for interscholastic surfing,” Ball said.

Ball is also known for his humility and gratitude for the efforts of others, such as the workers who prepared off-site parking for the meet.

“He’s my inspiration,” said Keith Amemiya, chair of Gov. Josh Green’s sports task force and former HHSAA chief. “Even after losing so much in the wildfires, he continued to lead the way as the MIL proved surfing can be done successfully and safely as a high school sport.”

With Amemiya on board, it helped with his access to support from the state’s highest elected official — and one of its all-time great surfers, Carissa Moore. They all lobbied for bills that provided funding and other support.

State Sen. Glenn Wakai also played a big role. So did one of his interns who never got the chance to truly represent her school as a surfer, and her father, a former coach.

For a year after her graduation from ‘Iolani, Sunny Kazama and her dad, Davin, strategized and acted to convince key people that state high school surfing is a worthwhile venture. They knew they needed to convince at least two of the four leagues to join the MIL – for a sport to be eligible for HHSAA championship status, three of the state’s five leagues must participate.

They put together a very thorough, but easy-to-understand presentation, addressing every concern of naysayers — and highlighting positives, such as Maui’s record of success and Ball and many other leaders and volunteers being ready to roll. They included tangible details, like the fact that two junior lifeguard and CPR-trained surfers, Dream Poe-Shippy of Farrington and Camden Fong of Kamehameha, saved swimmers in distress in 2023 and 2024.

“I think what really resonated is this girl already out of high school doing it for future generations.” Davin Kazama said.

Sunny made a poignant speech at the Legislature about the joy of her ‘Iolani club team finally winning a championship turning to disappointment when it was learned there would be no recognition by the school.

“In my senior season we won the state high school surf club championship for the first time in our school’s history,” she told the State Senate. “But we were told there would be no championship banner, no mention at all in the school’s athletic assembly because surfing was not, and still is not, a sanctioned high school sport.”

She is now a student at the University of San Diego but will be on Maui to see the meet, her father said.

”I am stoked that Hawaii will finally crown state surf champions,” Wakai said. “Sunny created a wave of excitement that generations of children will have the chance to ride into the future.”

Davin said the point that small schools can win championships with just a few athletes hit home, too.

Why did Davin Kazama get so involved? It wasn’t for his daughter — she was already headed for college.

“I felt that I owe surfing,” he said.

Kazama pointed out others who deserve credit, including Sarah Fairchild of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation, state Rep. Sean Quinlan, and Chun of the HHSAA.

There are many others from all of the islands and many walks of life, some of whom never surfed but see the value and the righteousness.

And now, today, kids in Hawaii will make surfing history.

What could be more pono?