Call it a tandem title. Kauai water safety officers Kalani Vierra partnered with Krystal Apeles of Lihue to earn gold medal honors at the Duke’s Oceanfest at Waikiki Beach. Vierra said he considers tandem surfing to be harder than regular
Call it a tandem title.
Kauai water safety officers Kalani Vierra partnered with Krystal Apeles of Lihue to earn gold medal honors at the Duke’s Oceanfest at Waikiki Beach.
Vierra said he considers tandem surfing to be harder than regular surfing.
“It takes teamwork, technique, and skill to tandem surf,” the Kauai waterman wrote in an email. “You’re the captain of the vessel and safety precaution has to be paramount for yourself, and your partner. Stand up surfing has its challenges, but it, like tandem surfing, takes technique and skill to master.”
He added that he and Apeles were former competitors against each other.
“This is our first time surfing together, and we trained for a couple of months,” Vierra wrote. “We plan to travel to different competitions around the world and strive to get another world title.”
Vierra’s been supporting and competing in the Duke’s festival for the past eight years, surfing tandem with five different partners.
“I will keep on supporting and competing the Duke’s until I am unable to,” Vierra said. “I have met a lot of great people, sharing our aloha of the ocean, and in memory of Hawaii’s greatest waterman, Duke Kahanamoku. I try to live my life as Duke would by being a lifesaver, waterman and teaching our youth with the spirit of aloha.”
Vierra, the supervisor at The Kauai Ocean Safety Bureau, said his first tandem championship came in 2007, partnering with Blanche Yoshida. Together, the pair earned two world titles, the Duke’s fest, an ISA Title, and the ITSA World Tour Title in Spain.
He then partnered with his daughter Eliza from 2008 through 2010, earning the ITSA World Title in 2008 and the ISA Title in 2009.
“These were the best surfing years of my life, sharing it with my daughter,” Vierra said. “We traveled to different countries, sharing the love and aloha of tandem surfing.”
Kauai water safety officers Kalani Vierra and Eugene Ancheta also picked up hardware at the Duke’s Oceanfest.
Coming off a trip to Virginia Beach, Virginia, with the Kauai Junior Lifeguards who won second-place overall honors, Vierra and Ancheta continued on to Oahu for the 13th annual event which wrapped up Sunday.
Ancheta, who captured gold in the 40-49 age group in Virginia Beach, finished the Duke’s fest with a silver medal after competing in the open division.
