Is it extortion, or just lifelong residents trying to take care of young people in an economically challenged community? A misunderstanding, or a felony put into writing? It will probably be up to police, prosecutors, other attorneys and the courts
Is it extortion, or just lifelong residents trying to take care of young people
in an economically challenged community?
A misunderstanding, or a felony
put into writing?
It will probably be up to police, prosecutors, other
attorneys and the courts to decide after the Westside Surfing Association
membership voted not to support a Surfers For Christ contest which was supposed
to take place at Major’s Bay on the Pacific Missile Range Facility last
weekend. The event was canceled, the contest prizes raffled off at the weekend
camping event, and both organizations are huddling with attorneys to plan
apparently inevitable next moves.
Westside Surfing Association sent a
letter to Surfers For Christ, asking for five surfboards, five bodyboards, free
entry into the contest for 40 West Side children or adults, and 25 percent of
the prizes Surfers For Christ secured for the contest.
Surfers For Christ
balked, calling the letter “extortion.” Its leaders have set a meeting tonight
to plan legal moves which may include filing lawsuits, temporary restraining
orders, and turning over the document to Kaua’i Police Department and county
prosecutors, according to Bob Keown, owner of Makai Properties, who volunteered
to assist with the event.
According to Nolan “Aba” Albarado of Westside
Surfing Association, the letter was sent simply to guarantee that some of the
young West Side surfers could participate in the contest and be guaranteed
prizes, even though they don’t always compete well against other surfers in
contests.
“West Side kids, they’re not good enough to be placing high in
those contests. They’re not into the surf circuit like those kids that surf (in
contests) all the time,” Albarado said. “What we wanted to make sure was that
if they’re going to hold a contest on the west side, that we hope that our kids
will be able to also have prizes, too, even though they won’t place high.
“They’re misunderstanding the whole letter. We didn’t want the west side
kids to be left out,” and the letter was intended to make sure the West Side
surfers would get some prizes, he added.
But Mike Givens, Keown and others
say the letter is just another type of intimidation, something commonplace at
certain West Side surf spots between those competing for waves.
“To me,
it’s extortion, because no one owns the water,” said Givens, still upset at
being told Surfers For Christ couldn’t hold the surf contest even though the
organizers have all the necessary governmental approvals and
permits.
“Never have I seen anything as bold and rash as this last move,”
Givens said of the letter.
Caught in the middle, apparently, is Jim
Satterfield, director of the contest and the one who pulled the plug on it. He
said it was his call alone, and not made because the contest has to happen or
not happen, or else.
Albarado’s letter was written with good intentions but
was misinterpreted by some in the Surfers For Christ and Kaua’i Christian
Fellowship organizations, Satterfield said.
Around 200 people came to surf
in the contest, including some from O’ahu and Maui. Nearly 300 people camped at
Barking Sands that weekend. Live bands from Kaua’i and O’ahu
performed.
When the surf meet was canceled, the prizes and gift
certificates were raffled off, leaving the contest organizers with all the
trophies they had secured, Givens said.
“In the best Christian way that we
could, we just prayed for Aba and his group, and went ahead and enjoyed the
weekend,” Givens said.
He figures this latest disagreement marks a good
place to make a stand against the territoriality that has seen assaults,
property damage and other unlawful encounters.
“My personal fear – and I’m
not talking for anyone other than myself, being raised here – if you allow this
to occur, it only gets worse. You need to nip it in the bud,” Givens
said.
“And the best way, I feel, is to expose it,” and perhaps pursue legal
action, he continued. “We’re not going to take this. It just isn’t right. We
won’t be intimidated, threatened. That’s not the aloha spirit.”
“What we
want is justice, basically,” said Keown, adding that by considering legal
action, this is an opportunity to put a stop to what he sees as racially
motivated intimidation.
This is not a movement of getting even or taking
revenge, but taking care of a bad situation that should have been handled long
ago, he added.
Keown also worries that asking for free entrance into
surfing contests sends the wrong message to the young West Side surfers that
things will be given to them in life.
The association could hold a car wash
or other fund-raiser to gain money for entry fees, he suggested.
To
Albarado, the issue is, to some extent, territorial.
“I think we have a say
here, because we live here. WSA (Westside Surfing Association) is the
community, not just one or two people,” said Albarado.
Staff Writer
Paul C. Curtis can be reached at [
HREF=”mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net”>pcurtis@pulitzer.net] or 245-3681 (ext.
224).
