Costumed crews hit surf at Queen’s

It took a combination of athletic prowess, engineering ingenuity, creativity and a flair for the theatrical to win the trophy in the second annual Red Bull Wave Party surfing contest at Queen’s Surf on Sunday.

Thirteen teams made up of co-workers, friends, BMXers and "the boyfriends of friends" competed in the surf party competition that resembled more of a Mardi Gras celebration than a surf meet. Judges were asked to consider not just the teams’ surfing skills, but the creativity of the environmentally friendly, handcrafted vessels and their ability to rile up the sun-drenched, energy drink-loaded beachgoers who watched them.

Among the favorites to take the crown was Gnarl Mania, a group that re-created a WWF Wrestlemania match on the beach, complete with a ring that could not only hold the faux Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage and a poor-sap referee, but surf the small waves just offshore.

That was the plan anyway. The Gnarl Mania craft, comprised of wood, pool noodles, foam and plastic flipped over twice in the water. And while the crew managed to right the boat/wrestling ring twice, it failed to catch a real wave.

Before hitting the surf, the crew hammed it up for the beachgoers. Savage appeared to be winning the faux wrestling match until someone managed to slip the Hulk­ster a can of — what else — Red Bull, which he poured into his mouth from half a foot away while standing on the ropes of the wrestling ring. It was all over for the Macho Man after that.

The team and its supporters are comprised mostly of University of Hawaii students, faculty and staff.

Nick Hunsinger, aka Hulk Hogan, who runs the wood shop at the Art Building, said the team got the foam for free from an auto glass supplier off an ad they put on Craigs­list.

"We tossed ideas around, and this is what we came up with," said Hun­sin­ger, who did his entire Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser interview while still in Hulk Hogan character. "We’re all children of the ’80s, and we love ourselves some WWF! And we came up with Gnarl Mania!"

The same crew called themselves the Gnarly Nomads last year and won the inaugural contest with its "Oregon Trail" entry, netting its six members a free trip to Las Vegas.

Hunsinger said he didn’t even know what the top prize was this year.

"We don’t think about the prize; we just fight for gloreeee," he growled, still in Hulk mode.

Gnarl Mania wasn’t the only team to not be able to surf a wave with its vessel.

Also failing to score points in the wave category was Shark Bait, a crew of Tiki Grill and Bar employees who dressed themselves up as the seven-member crew from the old TV show "Gilligan’s Island."

Barista/merchandiser Mariah White, also known as Mary Ann, said the Gilligan theme seemed like it would be a good fit.

"They left from Hono­lulu for a three-hour tour," she said. "I just thought it would be a good concept."

Bartenders Kevin Prior and Rick Perez, also known as Gilligan and Skipper, respectively, designed the raft­like vessel.

Alas, at the end of the day, neither Gnarl Mania or Shark Bait won.

The championship went to Queens of Queens, comprised of volunteers from the nonprofit Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, which focuses on reducing waste and is best known for its weekend beach cleanup efforts.

While the organization has a serious message, Sunday was about paying homage to the colorful history of Queen’s Surf and "trying to catch the best waves that we could," said Kahi Pacarro, leader of the cross-dressing crew and Sustainable Coastlines executive director.

Team member Roscoe "The Wizard" Fowler, a construction worker by day, picked up scrap wood from construction sites and pieced them together with single-use plastic water bottles "for buoyancy" to come up with this year’s winning watercraft, Pacarro said.

The top prize this year is the opportunity to skydive with the renowned, squirrel-suited Red Bull skydiving team. While most of the Queens of Queens team is looking forward to it, "two of the guys are scared out of their minds."

The bigger winners, however, may have been the Red Bull folks whose hashtag #RBPartyWave became the fifth most tweeted topic in Hawaii early Sunday afternoon as determined by the national surveying group Trending Topics USA.