Posted on: Friday, November 5, 2004

Pa'ia surfer Steve Cooney killed in single-car accident

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Well-known Maui surfer Stephen "Steve" Cooney was killed yesterday when the pick-up truck he was driving ran off the road and overturned in Ha'iku.

Police said Cooney, 30, of Pa'ia, was traveling down Kaupakalua Road about 1:30 a.m. when he lost control of a 1988 Toyota pickup truck about 0.2 mile northwest of Awalau Road. The truck hit an embankment and flipped over. Cooney was partially ejected from the truck and pinned under it when it rolled over, police said.

Cooney, who was alone in the truck, died at the scene. Police said he was not wearing a seat belt.

News of Cooney's death spread quickly through Maui's closeknit surfing community.

Several surfers described him as a dedicated regular at Ho'okipa Beach on Maui's north shore, although he was also well-known in California and on O'ahu's North Shore. Maui surfer Tide Rivers, 27, said Cooney won a number of professional "big air" surf contests, including one in Costa Rica. In aerial surfing, boardriders shoot up off the wave face and do maneuvers in the air before landing back on the wave.

Rivers said he knew Cooney for about 20 years and worked with him for several years at Mama's Fish House restaurant in Ku'au, about a quarter-mile from Ho'okipa. Rivers said Cooney was an inspiration to young surfers and "a true friend."

"He was such a great guy with such a great heart," he said.

Cooney had been focusing on making money in construction but still worked as a parking valet at the restaurant, Rivers said. Valet manager Tante Sumibcay said Cooney's co-workers and friends were shocked to learn of his death.

"He was such a good guy, I can't believe this happened to him," Sumibcay said.

Rivers said Cooney was on his way home from the Casanova restaurant and bar in Makawao when the accident occurred. Sumibcay said Cooney had recently purchased the truck he was driving when killed.

"It was this little low-rider thing he bought just last week," Sumibcay said.

He described Cooney as "one of the Ho'okipa boys," a group of about 100 regulars who show up at the world-famous windsurfing and surfing spot whenever the swells roll in.

"He was kind of fading out of the competitive end of surfing," Sumibcay said. "He still had a sponsor or two, but his focus had shifted to working full-time and making some money."

He described the stretch of road where Cooney was killed as "pretty bad, really winding," and an area where local residents tend to speed if they are in a hurry.

Rivers said Cooney had been building up toward making his mark this winter at the notorious Jaws surf spot off Peahi, Maui, where waves peak at 60 feet and higher on rare occasions.

He said his friend had surfed there a couple of times in smaller swells, and that Cooney was determined to take on waves that were at least 20 feet high.

Cooney's death was the 15th traffic fatality in Maui County this year compared with 13 a year ago. The circumstances are similar to an Oct. 26 fatal crash in which a pickup truck hit an embankment in Kihei, tossing the 26-year-old woman driver out of the vehicle. She, too, was not wearing a seat belt.

Advertiser Neighbor Island editor Christie Wilson contributed to this report.