By Aukai Ng Photos Mike Latronic
Summertime means no school, ice cream cones that melt way too fast, and waterparks. For competitive surfing, there’s no one surfing event that screams summer than the annual Local Motion Surf Into Summer at Ala Moana Bowl. This year’s event was sponsored by RVCA.
Historically one of the largest amateur surfing events in Hawaii, its family friendly gathering. Everyone pitches their canopies at Magic Island to have a nice weekend of sun and surf. All the top amateur surfers from across the state sign up to get the infamous break all to themselves. The participating divisions range from menehune kids all the way up to the old guard with masters and seniors. And let’s not forget the longboarders getting a crack at noseriding the left hander. “I’m a big fan of this event. It’s one of our long running events and it’s such a great legacy that Local Motion puts on here” said head judge and legend surfer, Dave Shipley. “We get a good range of surfing abilities, which is also one of the nice things I think about these type events, opening up to competitors that don’t compete all the time and aren’t competing at the highest level, but still have some great skills.” The Local Motion title is good street cred. Getting a win here not only gives you bragging rights, but also a sign that you can perform at a great level with others hungry for the same goal. Bowls is by far one of Hawaii’s best south shore breaks and typically pretty crowded. So to a grom, being in this contest is an absolute dream. Getting to surf at a break that’s already challenging enough to get waves and having it with a few of your friends. And by just participating in the event, it means a free lunch, a raffle ticket, and some fun prize packs that have all the great gear.
Day 1 was forecasted to have a day of 1-3 foot surf. And even though Bowls is known for having some incredible 4-6 foot face barrels, a small day can still bring some rippable rides. The key to advancing is of course good surfing, but due to the small conditions, positioning and patience were highly instrumental in getting a good result. Each heat wasn’t filled with consistent sets, but when a two wave set came, it offered enough sections for the competitors to surf it all the way to the inside. Being too far up from the point would also make everyone too deep and the ride would run away from the surfer. Even for the longboarders, getting those long rides set up great opportunities to get to the nose and get a great finishing carve on the inside section. For young competitors training to get to a more advanced stage in competitive surfing, these are the types of conditions these young kids must endure. They can either go through a slow heat, have a hard time catching waves and learn from it. Or figuring out what the ocean is doing and adapting to those conditions to get the heat win.
There are many standouts for the first day. On the menehune side, it was Kingston Palakiko and Aukai Tanaka making every early round heat. With such small statures, these 2 sometimes 3 foot sets made these knee high waves to the average person a shoulder to head high one for these groms. So this size made it more easy to rip. With her knowledge of the wave, Veteran competitor Brittany Penaroza from the North Shore also made her opening heat. Two young longboard ladies who are making names for themselves are Alana Johnson and Bella Eberz. All of their hard work practicing carves and nose riding at Queens and Kewalos are now paying off at bowls, getting them all set up for finals day.
The next question now is what will get you the score? We got a chance to talk to head judge Dave’s Shipley on what the judges are looking for. “We keep quality as kind of the fundamental base behind how we score” said Shipely. “ So when we see really good technique, even if it’s a smaller wave, if the techniques are there, they’re able to get a score out of that. Obviously if they get the more challenging wave with a more powerful section and more critical section, and they open up into that section, that’s gonna represent the higher end of the scale.” Bowls is known for offering that one critical spot in the pocket, so being able to stick to that when the wave isn’t barrel makes the most sense.
“So keeping flow on smaller waves, you’re gonna get a score, but obviously again, unloading into the bigger sections, more critical waves are gonna get the higher scores. Patience is also I think, an important thing waiting for those sets.”
Another factor to look at for this event is the concept of priority. Nowadays, more amateur contests have implemented a priority system, however not for the Surf Into Summer. So who gets first pick when a wave approaches? Well it goes back to the etiquette of a freesurf, the guy who is deepest, or closest to the curl, gets to have the wave. Now it is a challenge for even the judges to keep track of everything.
“ We keep a good eye out. I mean, there’s a lot of distance between us and the lineup. We try to, if they paddle too deep and they’ve basically try to prevent the other guy from catching the wave and the other guy knows that they’re too deep, then that’s gonna be his wave. But if he gets around him and gets back into that critical section and they’re still open faced, it’s basically kind of old school type cowboy stuff out there. But it’s a tough thing. I would love to see it go to four man heat, it’s really hard to do priority in six man heats as well, so six mount heat priority would be a, it’d be a challenging feat to put into place.”
The First day is always fun for this event, but traditionally the second day does have more excitement since it is finals day. Conditions were about the same as the start of the event, with 1-3 foot with inconsistency, but the event still proceeded. Day 2 started off with more opening rounds for the Men’s Masters, Senior men’s and Jr. Men’s. A great number of competitors kept making heats, fighting for a spot in the final that afternoon. But it was the final heats that brought more of a show. Again, more highlights came from Aukai Tanaka and Kingston Palakiko for the menehune division. These two goofy footers made incredible carves on the face, but in the end it was young Palakiko taking the win. Longboarding was just as exciting since they had a bit easier time catching waves. Matt Vasquez threw down the best rides from that final, doing some stylish hang 5’s and finishing the wave with a critical floater or a smooth cutback. Others in Vasquez’s heat did have excellent performances as well, with Kaimana Domen doing 1 critical move on each wave and Konan Riddleberger with some impressive helicopters. But Matt’s style and grace was what got him on the center podium. Longboard for the women brought great action too. Bella Eberz was again a standout, making good hang 5’s and carving to the inside. Kaiya Oliva was also very active in the heat, probably catching the most amount of waves for that final, focusing on getting a quick nose ride then carving the face. But Alana Johnson came out with the victory with great hang 5’s and good finishes at the end. The last final of the day were the Men’s Juniors. For the last few years, this age division has been filled with so much talent, consisting of surfing with so much power and style. Matteus Santos got to an aggressive start by getting the first couple waves of the heat, carving up the face on his forehand and trying some reverse attempts. Others like Ezra Clark and Davi Stella were all making great maneuvers, but the guy coming close to Matteus was North Shore’s Luke Tema. The heat became back and forth between Santos and Tema, but with Luke’s firing backhand, he was able to make powerful snaps in those pocket sections, getting the judges’ attention. The contest ended with a bang and Luke took home another victory for his trophy case. Luke mentioned to our team that his main focus was to “pick out the best waves and to time his turns correctly.” Well his game plan worked and now Luke is even more confident going into the WSL Qualifying Series event at Ala Moana Bowls in the next coming days.
As usual, this Surf Into Summer contest turned out to be an exciting weekend for the whole community. All of the participants got to compete in fun waves during two gorgeous days. There are always some incredible contests during the course of the year, but Local Motion Surf Into Summer is one of the more unique contests that everyone looks forward to the most. Bowls is such an impressive and famous wave that everyone wants to surf, so getting a crack at the wave is something everyone tries to jump on. What Local Motion does so well is making the event environment so positive and encouraging. Yes it is a competition, but their encouragement towards the kids to do their best in the water and uplifting them is something all these families appreciate. This is just a great time where friends and family can have some quality time with one another and make more great memories. Mahalo to Local Motion and RVCA for all your incredible work and bringing the magic to Magic Island.
Results
Menehune S.B. 11 & Under Final
Kingston Palakiko
Aukai Tanaka
Keahi Lee
Cade Bernier
Cooper Reed
Yoni Amir
Boys S.B. 12 – 14 Final
Reef Isono
Kaden Awad
Kielani Jardini
Kalei Rivas
Hayden JCCSO
Kanai Harvey
Women S.B. 18 & Up Final
Missy Valdez
Brittany Penaroza
Stephanie Da Silva
Roxanne Gates
Momo Sakuma
Angelina Yossa
Master S.B. 25 – 34 Final
Tanner Haytin
Chasen Kim
Piliku Victorino
Dylan Melamed
Jonah Currence
Brett Carter
Longboard Women Open Final
Alana Johnson
Kaiya Oliva
Bella Eberz
Hana Makita
Kara Watson
Elena Duke
Girls S.B. 17 & Under Final
Haven Ingbin Francisco
Skai Suitt
U’ilani Nakao
Kiki Oshiro Kaneshiro
Eliana Schiffner
Brenice Alama
Junior Men 15 – 17 Final
Luke Tema
Matteus Santos
Davi Stella
Ezra Clark
Wyatt Frakes
Nao Cliffon
Mens S.B. 18 – 24 Final
Noah Kawaguchi
Jolan Bonelli
Joshua Budroe
Jake Riccobuano
Taj Marzouki
Jayso Fong
Senior Men 35 – 44 Final
Gregg Nakamura
Kanaiaupuni Weatherway
Ash Marzouki
Keola Hayes
Dean Ichimura
Eric Tema
Longboard Men Open Final
Matthew Vasquez
Kaimana Domen
Konan Riffleberger
Eizen Grace
Rocco Olmstead
George Smith