KAILUA-KONA — It couldn’t have been easy to get outside of the moment’s roar of waves and taste of sun to quantify the day, but Trae Tanoai thought he’d take a stab at it.
KAILUA-KONA — It couldn’t have been easy to get outside of the moment’s roar of waves and taste of sun to quantify the day, but Trae Tanoai thought he’d take a stab at it.
“It’s the best contest,” he said, clutching his dripping board after a heat. “You don’t have to worry about winning; you just do it for fun.”
Fun — that was the key word of the day at Kohanaiki Beach Park on Saturday, with long lines of tents set up, kids ripping around on surfboards and bikes and parents kicking back to relax and watch some friendly competition.
Tanoai was competing in the boys 12-14 age division for shortboard in the 21st annual Keiki Surf For The Earth, a surf competition and beach cleanup he’s attended for the last handful of years.
In the same division was Kade Ketcheson, sizing up the waves as a little small — but rippable.
“It’s fun for all the groms to come down,” he said. “It’s a big family down here.”
On this kind of a day it was easy to forget the event has deep roots in public access activism. The Kohanaiki Ohana was formed 26 years ago to keep a resort, hotels and marina from being built on the choice stretch of white sand beach. As the group grappled with ways to keep the land public, they decided that holding the keiki surf competition and beach cleanup would demonstrate that the users were committed to caring for the place.
It worked.
“We believe Keiki Surf For The Earth won this beach park,” said Karen Eoff, the area’s councilwoman and a founding member of the group.
After seven years of legal battle that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, the new owners of the land consented to have the beach placed in the county’s hands, and the park opened in its official capacity in 2013 with some important legal precedents attending, including the mandate that developers must consider their impacts on cultural practices.
Angel Pilago, a former councilman, was also part of that fight. Saturday, he sat on his tailgate and reflected on the event he’s watched year after year.
“New children keep coming,” he said. “It’s a generational changeover, but the family values and positive attitudes remain the same. We all get to be responsible for our community.”
Others have been involved on a less political if no less heartfelt level.
Eli Broderson has spent the last seven years on water patrol and setup for the event, and can count back four decades of visits to these shores. His younger brother Adam competed in the early days and this year was the first time his son was too old to join. But he has two daughters coming along who will compete next year.
“The guy who has the biggest smile when he walks out of the water is the winner,” he said.
The emphasis is on getting kids to join in, regardless of skill level or how long they have been surfing, Broderson said.
“All the kids who were in that first event are friends to this day,” he said, watching a group of young groms catching a series of chest-high waves.
Beyond the surfing, the cleanup being facilitated by the Kona Surfrider Foundation is helping ingrain in kids “that this is our front yard, our coastline, and we need to preserve it,” Broderson said.
Parents and keiki competed in tandem events, with both riding the same board. Youths were tasked with helping their younger siblings compete in long, short and boogie board heats. The Surfriders held friendly competitions to see which keiki could gather the most trash, and generations worked together to spruce the place up. Kids and adults helped paint some 90 signs that would later be mounted along the byways reminding visitors in different ways to always malama the aina.
Some 400 hundred people lined the beach and shoreline area. Around 70 sponsored helped make the event happen.
The day-long competition had 144 contestants, about the same as last year, when Keiki Surf was held over two days to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Organizers had wanted to cap entries at 70 this time, but they also didn’t want to turn anyone away. Some kids were asked to compete in fewer slots, and in the end, there was room for everyone.
And there were prizes for all.