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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 3:21 p.m., Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Surfrider Foundation presents awards tomorrow

Advertiser Staff

Surf contest promoter Randy Rarick, pro surfer James Pribram, and environmental business owners Bob and Kelly King will be honored tomorrow night when the Surfrider Foundation Oahu Chapter presents the 5th annual John Kelly Environmental Achievement Awards.

The awards will be presented at the O Lounge. They recognize those who have made the greatest contributions toward protecting or enhancing the coastal community and environment.

Doors open at 8 p.m. and the awards ceremony will start at 9 p.m.. Three bands — Sashamon, the Pricks and OPM — will perform after the ceremony.

Admission at the door is $10.

Rarick will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. As a former pro surfer, Rarick has surfed all over the globe, teaching kids how to surf and helping to introduce the sport in many of the world's most remote areas. He has also been the head of the Triple Crown, the longest-running contest series in the world. Through his work with the Triple Crown, Rarick has raised funds for environmental organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation and Keep the North Shore Country.

Pribram will receive the Professional Surfer Award. Pribram is a professional surfer, writer and television commentator, and owner-operator of the Aloha School of Surfing. He also is an active environmental leader. He is co-founder of They Will Surf Again, an organization that raises money for people who have suffered ocean-related spinal injuries, as well as a spokesperson for Project Wipeout Ocean, Brandy's Friends Drug Awareness Foundation, and the Surfrider Foundation.

The Kings, who own Pacific Biodiesel, will receive the Most Environmentally Friendly Hawaii-based Company Award for creating inexpensive, clean-burning fuel from waste cooking oil and other biofuels. The Kings are biodiesel pioneers, creating the first biodiesel processing plant in the Pacific Rim. In 1996 they opened the first retail biodiesel pump in the United States. They have built and helped build refineries on O'ahu and Maui, in Japan, Pennsylvania, Oregon and in partnership with Willie Nelson in Texas.

John M. Kelly Jr., for whom the award is named, was a surfer, board shaper and grass-roots activist, who for decades led many human rights protests, land battles and environmental crusades on O'ahu. Kelly, who recently died, was the original recipient of the Lifetime Achievement category.

On the Web: http://www.surfrider.org/oahu