Easter service for Maui surfer killed by shark

By Matt Sedensky
Associated Press Writer

KAHANA, Maui — A surfer whose life ended with a shark's bite will be remembered here today, at the beach where his body was towed ashore after the attack.

Will McInnis, the 57-year-old Kahana man who died Wednesday at Pohaku Beach — the popular west Maui surf spot known as S-Turns — will be honored in an Easter Day service.

The 11 a.m. memorial is a continuation of a tradition started by McInnis, who led Sunday morning religious services at the beach.

Afterward, fellow surfers, friends and family, including his son Mark, plan to paddle surfboards out, form a circle and offer prayers and Hawaiian chants. His ashes will be later spread just south of here in Honokowai. Members of the Hui O Pohaku Park surf club that McInnis belonged to plan to honor him later by surfing.

The Maui service coincides with one planned today near Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Bend, Ore., where McInnis also had a home.

McInnis was surfing on a 10-foot board in murky waters about 300 yards offshore when he was attacked. A number of people rushed to his aid, getting him ashore and using shirts and towels as a tourniquet. But the gashes in his right leg were huge, the blood loss was substantial and McInnis died. It was the first confirmed fatal shark attack in Hawai'i's waters in nearly 12 years.

Surfers have since returned to the water and friends have flocked to Pohaku Beach. It has become the site of nightly gatherings in honor of McInnis, who is remembered with a makeshift memorial of flowers and photos on a park bench facing the ocean.

"He never frowned — always smiling," said Sean Reid, a Web developer in Kahana who was friends with McInnis. "Every wave he had he was stoked to be alive."

McInnis lived in Oregon and worked as a sales manager at Eagle Crest Resort before he retired and moved to Hawai'i, said Cindy Barker, a former co-worker.