LIHU‘E — Five of the 12 representatives for the 2011 World Junior Surfing Championships Team Hawai‘i have Kaua‘i ties, all taking part in the International Surfing Association’s top junior event in Punta Hermosa, Peru this week. Kaimana Jaquias, Koa Smith,
LIHU‘E — Five of the 12 representatives for the 2011 World Junior Surfing Championships Team Hawai‘i have Kaua‘i ties, all taking part in the International Surfing Association’s top junior event in Punta Hermosa, Peru this week.
Kaimana Jaquias, Koa Smith, Kaoli Kahokuloa, Tatiana Weston-Webb and Brianna Cope are each competing and hoping to tally points for the Hawai‘i team — this year’s “Ambassadors of Aloha.”
The rest of the team is made up of Keanu Asing, Ezekiel Lau, Isaiah Moniz, Ian Gentil, Kain Daly, Mahina Maeda and Bailey Nagy. Head coach is once again Rainos Hayes, with Kahea Hart, Jason Shibata and Joel Centeio also joining the team as coaches.
Competition days run from today through May 29, with opening heats scheduled this morning for 8 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Hawaiian).
Last year’s crew brought home the silver medal, finishing just behind an always powerful Australian group.
Surfers are split into three divisions: Boys Under 18 (Asing, Lau, Jaquias, Moniz), Boys Under 16 (Smith, Gentil, Daly, Kahokuloa) and Girls Under 18 (Weston-Webb, Maeda, Cope, Nagy).
The Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship began in 2003 with an Olympic-style competition in Durban, South Africa. This is the first time Peru will play host, with 27 participating countries and over 280 competitors in attendance.
“Peru is a surfing Mecca,” said ISA President Fernando Aguerre at a Friday press conference. “It is probably one of the places with the most consistent and highest quality waves in the world along with Indonesia, and its waves are probably bigger. And the top junior surfers in the world agree: As of today we have a record-breaking amount of registrations for the event.”
The Parade of Nations of the World was scheduled to take place Saturday evening, followed by the Sands of the World Ceremony in Lima’s El Circuito Mágico del Agua.
Hawai‘i won the gold in 2005 at Huntington Beach and has never placed outside the top five. Australia has won gold the past five years and has been crowned champion six out of the eight years the event has existed. Brazil is the only other gold-medal winner, taking the inaugural crown in 2003 in Durban, South Africa.
Asing re-joins the team this year and hopes to win another championship after winning his 2009 title for the Under 16 Boys division.
For the Kaua‘i group, Jaquias and Smith are returning veterans, while the other three are making their first ISA appearances. Smith took the bronze medal in the Boys Under 16 division last year in Auckland, New Zealand.
Though originally from Moloka‘i and now living on O‘ahu, Kahokuloa ripped through the Hawai‘i Surfing Federation Kaua‘i season, taking three first-place finishes at the PK’s, Pinetrees and Intersections contests
A former Kaua‘i resident, he is fresh off two gold medals (Boys 14-15, Junior Men Longboard) at the Hawai‘i Surfing Association state championships at Ala Moana Bowls on O‘ahu.
Weston-Webb also had three wins during HSF Kaua‘i competition and took silver (Girls 14-15) at the HSA championships, plus a win at this year’s Pipeline Pro.
The women’s trio of Leila Hurst, Nage Melamed and Malia Manuel were also a part of the 2010 second-place finishers with Jaquias and Smith.
For more information, as well as live event broadcasts, visit www.isawjsc.com.
