Smiles all around at surf celebration

The Aloha spirit was running strong at Duke’s OceanFest.

The tandem, wounded warrior and the lay down surfing divisions were run Wednesday with smiles from all the competitors. The surfers were graced with sunny skies and clean 1- to 2-foot waves at Queen’s in Waikiki.

The International Tandem Surfing Association event at Queen’s is the most coveted event on the tandem world tour and first-place winners Pauly Chambers, 36, of South Carolina and Krystal Apeles, 25, of Kauai were genuinely stoked with the win.

"We were blessed with waves at the event today," Apeles said. "Winning this event means more to me because I was raised here."

"Going into this event, we practiced different lifts for when you’re actually surfing the waves as opposed to when you are going straight," Chambers said. "We practice 5-6 times a week and surf for at least two hours."

"We usually do about seven events on the tour, but Duke Kahanamoku’s event is our favorite, and we feel this is the top tandem event of the whole tour," Chambers said.

"We just got back from Europe and every person we spoke to about Hawaii wanted to sit down and talk story to us about Hawaii. When we go abroad we recommend everyone to come down to Waikiki and see where surfing started."

In the lay down assist division, John Duggan, 57, came out on top, but all who entered were winners.

"The waves were small, the conditions were beautiful and we had Queen’s to ourselves. What can I say?" Duggan said. "It’s my first time getting first, but in all honesty it’s about the camaraderie, and I would have been just as happy if someone else had won. I worked really hard, surfed really hard, and I got the best waves, so it was my day. When I was paralyzed 35 years ago there was no disabled surfing and now there is so I feel like God smiled on me."

The wounded warrior division was also run Wednesday, but with limited entrants it was combined with the amputee division to make up the field.

North shore resident Eric Welton, 33, came out on top. Welton is an amputee, losing a leg.