Surf's up ... but maybe not for Hawaii's public schools

Apr. 14—State lawmakers are considering a bill to promote and support surfing as an interscholastic sport, but only with minuscule funding after the same bill was deemed unnecessary last year.

Surfing and lawmaking in Hawaii are intersecting oddly at the state Capitol.

State lawmakers are considering a bill to promote and support surfing as an interscholastic sport, but only with minuscule funding after the same bill was deemed unnecessary last year.

House Bill 500 was introduced in January 2023, but got deferred two months later by the Senate Committee on Education because the state Department of Education didn't need such legislation to expand league-governed surfing in public schools.

Yet last month, the same committee revived the bill in coordination with a proposed amendment for HB 500 to also appropriate $11.6 million for 11 purposes that DOE failed somehow to have included in other legislation earlier this year.

The added spending requests include :—$5 million for middle school athletics programs—$2.5 million for workforce readiness initiatives—$1.7 million for school partnerships with employers to benefit students and workforce needs—$646, 138 for professional learning in classrooms—$579, 450 for middle school education—$500, 000 for teaching and learning in secondary mathematics—$56, 350 for math camps The smallest appropriation proposed for HB 500 is $42, 000 to promote and support surfing as an interscholastic sport.

According to DOE, Hawaii's public school system has had regulations to implement surfing as a high school sport since 2005, and in 2016 the state Board of Education approved a policy that established surfing as a high school sport.

For any of the five leagues under the Hawaii High School Athletic Association to establish surfing as a league sport, it takes a majority of member school principals to vote for it and a minimum number of schools to participate.

Some schools have formed clubs to offer surfing as a nonleague school sport. But Maui Interscholastic League, since 2012, has been the only HHSAA affiliate with surfing as a league sport.

Ray Fujino, then-executive director of the Oahu Interscholastic Association, testified on HB 500 in 2023 that not enough Oahu public schools had expressed interest previously to establish surfing as an OIA sport.

Because the mechanism exists to expand surfing as an interscholastic sport, the Senate Committee on Education last year deferred action on the bill.

Then the same committee on March 20 held a new public hearing on SB 500 after DOE expressed a need to fund several items that were in its supplemental budget request for the 2025 fiscal year beginning July 1 but didn't get included in any legislation earlier this year.

Keith Hayashi, DOE superintendent, noted in written testimony for the March 20 hearing that no school principal on Oahu has proposed to add surfing as a league sport.

Several individuals expressed support for the bill, including Kylie Sato, captain of the Leilehua High School Mules Surf Team.

"While surfing is a sanctioned sport, there are no committed resources, " she told the committee.

A DOE or athletic association official told the committee that they don't support or oppose the bill, but estimated that it would take $800, 000 to fund more participation with paid coaches and to run tournaments with paid judging, ocean safety staffing and equipment.

Beth Matsuda, founder of the surf club at Waianae High School, testified that it costs $42, 000 for 13 schools on Oahu—eight public and five private—to run club surfing programs with volunteer coaches. So the committee included that amount in the bill as support.

However, Sen. Donna Kim, vice chair of the committee, said she believed that DOE could not use the appropriation if it passes because it would be for clubs and not the department.

"How do we give monies to DOE to give to a club sport ?" asked Kim (D, Kalihi-Fort Shafter-Red Hill ). "You'd have to expend your money for a DOE program."

Hayashi appeared to agree.

Nonetheless, the committee unanimously approved the new draft of the bill dropping in 11 other DOE appropriations. HB 500 then passed the Senate Ways and Means Committee unamended on April 4, and the full Senate voted 24-0 Tuesday to send the measure back to the House to consider the amendments.

On Friday, House leadership indicated that a conference committee of House and Senate negotiators would have to agree on a final draft of the bill for it to be enacted.