Artistry counts in Makahiki Games
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
A little bit of old-style Hawaiian surfing blended with modern-day athleticism at Makaha Beach over the weekend.
Bernie Baker photo
In a throwback to ancient Hawaiian times, the Quiksilver Makahiki Games featured longboard surfing, canoe surfing and tandem surfing. In a tribute to fitness and technology, the competitors made it look simple — and fun.
Team FBI, a crew of City & County lifeguards, attempts to score artistic points during the canoe surfing competition of the Quiksilver Makahiki Games at Makaha Beach. From left are Katie Wright, Guy Pere and Eric Chun. The fourth member, Dolan Eversole, wiped out — those are his feet to the right of the canoe.
"This is one of the most unique contests around," said Ryan Van Gieson, captain of Leeward Kai, the first-place canoe surfing team. "It's one of the few that has canoe surfing, so we were happy just to be a part of it."
The event was created eight years ago by Quiksilver, an internationally recognized surf apparel company. According to Quiksilver representative Glenn Moncata, the two-day contest was named after the ancient Hawaiian festivals, or makahiki.
"Back then, they'd have festivals and games that lasted four months," Moncata said. "So we thought it would be nice to have a makahiki games for water sports."
During the past eight years, the event has "got a little bigger and a little bigger each year," Moncata said. This weekend drew more than 100 competitors in the various divisions.
"It's become a really neat event," Moncata said. "It's very local and very community-minded. It really is like an old-fashioned get-together on the beach."
On Saturday, the longboard surfing division was completed in 1- to 3-foot waves. All competitors had to ride surfboards at least 9 feet long, much like the old-style surfboards, except not as heavy.
Keegan Edwards, the defending United States amateur champion, topped a field that featured most of Hawai'i's top professional surfers. He earned $1,500 for the victory.
Makaha's own Rusty Keaulana placed second, followed by Dino Miranda and Kanoa Dahlin.
Although longboard surfing might be the most recognized division, yesterday's canoe surfing and tandem surfing competitions were the most visually spectacular.
Tandem surfing features one male and one female on the same surfboard. Once on the wave, the male must lift the female into various positions to score artistic points. Picture University of Hawai'i cheerleaders performing their routines on a surfboard, and you get the idea.
Bobby Friedman and Tiare Thomas, both of Waikiki, took first place and earned $800 with a variety of acrobatic maneuvers.
"People talk about the soul of surfing and all that," said Friedman, 40. "I don't think there's anything more soulful than this."
On one wave, Friedman lifted Thomas on to his shoulders as the wave crumbled all around them. While still surfing the wave to shore, Thomas stood straight up on Friedman's shoulders with her arms spread outward in the "look, no hands" pose. The judges rewarded it with a score of 9.5, which was enough to edge the team of Mel Pu'u and Nani Kealoha.
Pu'u and Kealoha also completed several impressive moves, and Friedman thought they should have won.
"We did some hard tricks, but I thought Mel put on a better show," said Friedman, who has been tandem surfing for eight years.
The canoe surfing division featured similar radical maneuvers.
Each four-person canoe took turns riding waves. While on the wave, the paddlers can stand up and pose, or hang out the side of the canoe to score artistic points.
"It's not something you do every day," Van Gieson said. "We were just trying to combine positioning (on the wave) and maneuverability with some tricks. You have to go into it with the frame of mind that you're out there to have fun."
It helped that all four members of the winning crew are teammates for Leeward Kai, which is an actual canoe club based in Nanakuli that competes in regattas. Blaze Kamakele, Gregory Gomes and William Anderson were the paddlers/posers. Van Gieson steered the canoe.
"We pretty much train together year round," Van Gieson said. "We're a small club, so we support each other in everything."
In something rare for canoe paddling, the winning crew was awarded $800.
"That's a bonus," Van Gieson said. "We'd probably be out here anyway whether there was prizes or not. If they want to give us some money for it, cool."
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Final results
Longboard surfing
1, Keegan Edwards, $1,500. 2, Rusty Keaulana, $750. 3, Dino Miranda, $350. 4, Kanoa Dahlin, $250. 5 (tie), Duane DeSoto and Sion Milosky. 7 (tie), Joey Valentin and Kamu Auwae.
Tandem surfing
1, Bobby Friedman/Tiare Thomas, $800. 2, Mel Pu'u/Nani Kealoha, $400. 3, Brian Keaulana/Kathy Terada, $200. 4, Jason Patterson/Mahina Patterson, $100.
Canoe surfing
1, Leeward Kai, $800. 2, Team Aikau, $400. 3, Russ K. Makaha, $200. 4, Team Quik, $100.
