This year Punahou is competing in the first official HHSAA surf season. Schools from all five leagues, the ILH, OIA, BIIF, MIL, and KIF will participate in the first annual HHSAA state tournament. 

Most competitions this year will be held at Ala Moana, while the state tournament is set to be held in the first week of May at Ho’okipa, Maui. The designated backup location will be at Kahului Harbor in case of unexpected weather or swell changes at the original spot. The tournament will crown champions for both boys and girls in longboarding, shortboarding, and bodyboarding.

Prior to this year Punahou had a surf club which competed in unofficial school events. In previous contests the format was different, having three or so surfers from two different schools go against each other in a heat. This year, heats will consist of surfers from multiple schools and points earned from the heat will go to the school’s overall score. 

The format for this year’s state tournament at Ho’okipa, Maui will have six person heats with various athletes from different schools. The top three surfers will advance to the next round. Judges will take the top two scores from each athlete and whoever has the highest combined score, wins. This year, schools from all five Hawaii high school sports leagues will be participating in the annual competition.

Punahou senior Mala’e McElheny is a member of the surf team this year and has participated on the club team in prior years. “I think it’s super cool that surfing is an ILH sport and that it’s finally getting recognized as a sport in Hawaii,” he said. Surfing is now the 21st official sport in the HHSAA.

Mala’e also shared his thoughts about how the team is looking, “The last few days of practice with the new team have been great and I feel like we would definitely have a chance as long as we keep practicing”.

Davin Kazama, a long time advocate for surfing, has been appointed coordinator for this year’s state tournament at Ho’okipa. He also founded and ran the Honua finals surf in Waikiki which is an international surf contest.  

In an article by Hawaii News Now, executive director of the HHSAA Chris Chun commented on Kazama being appointed tournament coordinator: “He’s an absolute expert on running a surf contest, he understands it and over the past couple months we’ve been working together… so he understands what athletic directors have to go through, what it means now that it’s a sanctioned high school sport.”

Carissa Moore, a five time world champion and olympic gold medal winner was very excited to finally see surfing recognized as a high school sport. She grew up here in Hawaii but never got to experience competing for high school. “It’s long overdue. Surfing is Hawaii’s sport.”