Photo: Surfing Be Cause
It was a glorious day and the rumble of a big NW swell could be heard nearby at Haiku Elementary School. I had just got out of the water at from a dawn patrol session out at Pe’ahi along with Jesse Richman, Albee Layer, and Paige Alms. We scored a nice warm-up session with only a few others out before for the impending larger swell forecasted into mid-January weekend. We made it out just in time for the 1 o’clock Haiku School assembly.
It had been a long time coming up to that moment — more than a year of planning since I first spoke with Rob Machado about my idea. I told him how I had raised funds the previous big wave season for coral conservation research by asking people and businesses to pledge funds on a per foot basis of the biggest wave I caught that year. A beach cleanup at Pe’ahi had now inspired me to create a new anti-plastic project, having seen the massive piles of trash we’d collected around this world-famous wave and directly across from Haiku Elementary. When I learned what Rob’s foundation was doing, equipping schools and their students with reusable water canteens and bottle filling stations, I knew it was a perfect fit. He and his foundation’s director, Gabriela Aoun, agreed and we set our eyes on Haiku Elementary. I’d remembered how derelict the fountains were when I attended there and they had the very same ones still in place. That needed to change. What began as a simple conversation steamrolled into this massive campaign with many entities jumping on board, including Reef and Dakine, who offered to purchase the 550 canteens for all the students and faculty. In addition, many local companies and individuals donated their time and money to acquire and install the three new water stations, most notably a local zip line company called Skyline Eco Adventures, who donated a whopping $10,000 toward the project. Its owner, Danny Boren, is an avid environmentalist and surfer who has made it a priority to use his company’s assets to promote an end to domestic plastics in the islands. After the pledges were in place all I needed was a big one to seal the deal. I tried to surf every big swell I could out at Jaws during the 2016-2017 winter season, which was sparse. I ended up catching a 35-foot wave on a late-season day in April 2017. I got the call from my good friend and go-to Jaws partner Jonathan Walczak that it was going off and no-one was out.
Photo: Surfing Be Cause
In order to ensure these students would be less likely to lose their brand new canteens, we invited some hometown heroes to distribute and give signatures on them. Albee Layer, two-time big wave world champ Paige Alms, two-time world kitesurfing champ Jesse Richman, Kai Lenny, and 13-year-old Ty Simpson-Kane, Maui’s up and coming big wave charger, all came to Haiku to inspire the kids to do their part. These athletes are well-known idols to these students and the excitement in the assembly court was palpable as each student went through the signature booth with smiles from ear to ear.
Our hope is that this simple gesture will inspire those students to be more conscientious of their actions that affect our environment and grow up to one day lead the charge for a more sustainable future. With marine plastic becoming an increasingly global problem, it is imperative that we teach our youth to be wiser than ourselves and generations past. They will one day inherit this planet and they need to know how to better take care of it. Personally, this project has taught me that if your intentions are good, people will rally behind you to reach your goals and that giving back to your community is the most fulfilling and joyous thing one could do in life.
