Surf’s finally up for many Hawaii high school athletes.
A bill to provide $685,870 for each of the next two fiscal years to fund high school surfing competition made it through the toughest swells, as state House and Senate conferees agreed last week to send the measure forward.
Rep. Sean Quinlan authored House Bill 133, which is expected to pass the floor vote Wednesday, and Gov. Josh Green is in support, Quinlan and Sen. Glenn Wakai said.
“Gov. Green has been so supportive,” Quinlan said. “He told me personally to ‘Get it done.’”
Surfing was approved by the Legislature as a state high school sport in 2004, but largely because of DOE resistance citing costs and perceived safety challenges, only the Maui Interscholastic League has held official prep championships. The MIL has conducted scheduled contests and a league championship for more than a decade.
“In every other league surfing doesn’t exist,” recent ‘Iolani graduate Sunny Kazama testified last week to the state Senate.
The companion act, Senate Bill 178, was introduced by majority floor leader Wakai, who enlisted Kazama to speak on behalf of passage.
“(Surfing) has transformed me mentally, physically and spiritually,” said Kazama, who will start college at UC San Diego this fall. “In my senior season we won the state high school surf club championship for the first time in our school’s history. 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.”
Opposition has cited surfing as dangerous, but the MIL has held its competitions with water safety as a priority, including thoroughly trained coaches and officials.
“Injury rates are negligible, and insurance is not high. They’ve been doing it safely and the right way on Maui for so many years,” Quinlan said. “Hawaii has given the world two great gifts. The first one is aloha and the second is surfing.”
A similar bill “died a messy death” in conference two years ago, Quinlan said.
Kazama’s speech helped passage this time, Quinlan said.
“It was really great, (Kazama’s) advocacy really helped,” Quinlan said. “We want to hear from the young people like her, the people who these laws will affect most. The reality of the job we do is people who don’t want things are usually louder than the ones who do want things.”
Passage of the bill will likely create a state championship meet if at least three of the five state high school athletic leagues participate.
Surfing Hall of Famer and Olympic champion Carissa Moore has also vocally supported surfing as a high school sport for many years.
“We’re going to invite all the advocates (for the law signing),” Quinlan said. “Keith Amemiya is another one who has done heroic work 0n this. I cannot thank Keith enough for his help on this bill. “
Amemiya, former director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, now serves as the head of Green’s sports task force.
