With the news of Kamehameha winning the National Interscholastic Surfing Championships in Dana Point, Calif., over the weekend, I was reminded of something from three years ago.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, DOE superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and BOE member/former HHSAA director Keith Amemiya joined surfing champ Carissa Moore in Waikiki, a few feet from the beach and near Duke Kanamoku’s statue. They made a huge, splashy announcement:

Surfing had been approved as an interscholastic high school sport here in Hawaii.

Since that proclamation, only the Maui Interscholastic League has hit the waves, staging three meets, including an MIL championship event this past year. Baldwin’s boys and Lahainaluna’s girls emerged victorious.

But there’s no real state meet. Surfers like Imai DeVault and Cayla Moore — the Kamehameha student-athletes who won individual national titles last weekend — have no access to a sanctioned state high school title. Nor do their teams.

There is club competition in the Hawaii Surfing Association. Kamehameha has won the past five HSA girls state titles.

You need a majority of the state’s five athletic leagues in a sport to stage a state championship.

"I can’t force leagues to implement a sport," HHSAA chief Chris Chun said. "If three leagues run it I have a sponsor willing to support it."

Members of the surfing community said they would stage high school events for free. But Oahu Interscholastic Association director Ray Fujino said there are still transportation and coaching costs.

He said there are also liability issues. It is surfing, after all, and surfing is not as safe as, say, bowling and some other sanctioned sports.

Kim Ball, co-coordinator for MIL surfing, said the first season on the Valley Isle produced few injuries.

"An occasional coral cut. Almost nothing, even at practices. No broken bones," said Ball, adding that coaches went through two days of training, including CPR, ocean water safety and lifesaving.

Ball said liability issues were addressed fairly easily, and for the seven schools participating, surfing "wasn’t cost prohibitive at all. We got outside sponsorship."

Ball said coaches reported previously at-risk students attending study hall regularly and improving in the classroom. "They became engaged in school for the first time," he said.

Fujino said the OIA would have to have eight schools with teams to start a league but no one has come forth with a proposal.

I’m sure student-athletes are interested, especially at schools near great beaches like Waianae, Nanakuli, Waialua, Kahuku and Kailua, to name just a few.

Safety is a legitimate concern — but it certainly is with football, too. If you can legitimize interscholastic football competition, you certainly can surfing.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," Fujino said.

It looks like the rest of the state can get some answers from Maui.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.