When Keone Downing was learning to surf on Honolulu’s South Shore in the 1960s, kids were taught to respect their elders and await their turns rather than snaking (poaching) waves.
“If Paul Strauch (a leading Hawaiian surfer) was out there paddling for a wave,” said Downing, who was taught to surf by his father, big-wave pioneer George Downing, and beachboy “uncles” at Waikiki, “you weren’t going to drop in on him or paddle behind him and yell, ‘I got it!’”
Nowadays, however, Downing, 66, and others find themselves getting snaked by young teenagers, known as groms, even at traditionally ohana-friendly spots like Kewalos, off Kewalo Basin Park.
“There’s a lack of aloha out there,” said Ron Iwami, 65, a Kewalos regular and president of the nonprofit community group Friends of Kewalos. “There’s tension and stress; it’s not an enjoyable experience anymore.”
That’s why Friends of Kewalos is launching Surf With Aloha, a campaign to educate surfers, especially groms, about the need to share and protect Hawaii’s surf breaks.
The public is invited to a free Surf With Aloha event this evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ho‘okupu Center in Kewalo Basin Park.
Speakers will include two young Hawaii stars on the international pro tour — 4x World Champ Carissa Moore, 27, and 2019 Rookie of the Year Seth Moniz, 22 — who have surfed Kewalos since childhood with family and friends.
“We chose Carissa and Seth because they’re really good in the water,” Iwami said. “If they catch a set wave (bigger waves that arrive in series), they don’t come right back out and catch the next; they let us uncles go, and vice versa — mutual respect.”
Because groms look up to them, he added, Moore and Moniz will be ideal influencers for surfing with aloha, explaining surf etiquette as they learned it from their elders and the differences in rules and expectations between contest and recreational surfing.
Representing the elders and teaching surfing with aloha will be their fathers, Tony Moniz and Chris Moore, and waterman George Kam.
The event will include the unveiling of three Surf With Aloha signs to be placed along the Kewalos shoreline.
But you can’t surf with aloha if you don’t have a place to surf, said Downing, who along with Iwami will discuss the history of actions taken to protect surf sites, ocean resources and public access.
Magic Island was constructed in 1960, Iwami said, in phase one of a plan to fill land and build hotels atop the Ala Moana reef stretching from Magic Island to Kewalos, which would be turned into a lagoon inside a breakwater.
Alerted to the plan when he witnessed Garbage Holes being filled in from across the channel as he surfed at Ala Moana Bowls, Honolulu resident John Kelly founded Save Our Surf in 1961 and led a grassroots movement that preserved the Ala Moana and Kewalos surf breaks and parks.
When nearby public lands were threatened by development more than 30 years later at Kakaako Makai, home to the surf breaks of Point Panics and Flies, Iwami reached out to George Downing, who had taken the helm at Save Our Surf when Kelly fell ill.
With Downing’s guidance the Save Our Kaka‘ako campaign was launched, in which hundreds of people, including an 8-year-old Seth Moniz with his parents and siblings, marched to the state Capitol in 2006, protesting the sale of public lands for Alexander & Baldwin’s planned development.
The public won that battle but the groups stay vigilant: In January they successfully rallied the public to defeat a plan to eliminate 125 free parking spaces at Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, where people park to surf from Ala Moana to Waikiki.
Now it’s time for a new generation to learn and continue what their elders have done “to stop their own surf spots from being destroyed,” said Keone Downing, who is carrying on his late father’s work. “The next group of young teenagers has to start being leaders because the leaders are getting old.”
He urged young surfers to “give some slack to your kupuna. No need snake just because you can. Soon you be paddling just as slow as them.”
There will be sign-up sheets at the event, Iwami said, so you can get email reminders for Friends of Kewalos’ annual park cleanup June 6.
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‘SURF WITH ALOHA’
A community event presented by Friends of Kewalos featuring Carissa Moore, Seth Moniz, Ron Iwami and Keone Downing; with light pupu (bring a reusable water bottle).
>> When: 6-8 p.m. today
>> Where: Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Ho‘okupu Center (KUPU net shed), Kewalo Basin; park in former NOAA lot to leave public lot open for park users
>> Cost: Free and open to the public
>> Info: kewalo.org/saturday-february-29-2020-surf-with-aloha
