The first state high school surfing championships in Hawaii were set to begin Friday morning at Hookipa Beach Park on Maui, with finals scheduled for Saturday. The event marks the first time the sport has had a statewide school championship, and it arrives with teams from across the islands already trading long travel days and the usual nerves that come with ocean competition.
Waialua and Punahou were late to Thursday practice because of flight delays, but the schedule still gave the five leagues assigned two-hour time frames to get into the water. Waialua coach Rain Magyar said some of the team’s boards were delayed too, though that was worked out in time for the meet.
For Magyar, the value of getting here was bigger than logistics. “The ocean has so much uncertainty,” she said in effect, adding that every bit of experience helps. Waialua, which won the inaugural Oahu Interscholastic Association girls championship, also had to adjust to recent floods that kept the team out of the water for 40 days. Magyar said the group had to get creative with training and that the camaraderie and discipline had lifted the mood around the team.
Kahuku, which won the boys meet at Kewalos last week, and Waialua both arrived with momentum after the Oahu Interscholastic Association competition, where Waialua had the most combined points. The state meet is being staged on Maui because the Maui Interscholastic League has been able to hold school-sanctioned surfing meets and championships for more than a decade, making it the only league with that kind of experience when the sport was finally approved statewide.
The competition also lands at a difficult moment for Maui. The island is still recovering from the deadly Lahaina wildfires of August 2023, the PGA indefinitely canceled The Sentry at Kapalua and the Maui Invitational basketball tournament is on shaky ground. Against that backdrop, HHSAA executive director Chris Chun said the day many people thought might never come had finally arrived, and surfing coordinator Davin Kazama called Kim Ball a legend while praising the Maui league’s help and leadership.
For teams like Waialua, the championship is about more than medals. Magyar said many of the kids know each other and there is a pecking order in the water, but representing their schools has made the event feel special. It is the kind of moment Hawaii’s surf community has talked about for years, and now the first wave is set to break at Hookipa.
