BIIF Surf Meet at Kohanaiki Draws Island High Schools Despite Blustery Conditions; Local Surfers Shine

Gusty winds and unsettled skies greeted competitors at Kohanaiki Beach Park on March 28, but the tougher challenge may have been what the location itself represented: the first-ever Big Island Interscholastic Federation surf contest held on the west side of the island.

Athletes from Kamehameha-Hawaii, Kealakehe, Hilo, Laupahoehoe and other programs navigated the Kona coast break's variable swells across longboard, shortboard and bodyboard divisions. It was the second meet of BIIF's inaugural surf season, and the first to give west-side athletes a home-water advantage.

The day's most compelling story unfolded in the longboard divisions, where siblings Alex Ranne and Amaya Ranne each won their respective fields. The brother-sister sweep pushed both to the top of league longboard points standings after two meets, a double title that stood as the day's signature result.

Kamehameha-Hawaii's Lily Michaels ran deeper into the competition than anyone else, reaching the finals in all three divisions she entered and claiming first place in girls shortboard. Kealakehe's Toby Aspirin captured the boys shortboard final.

The Kamehameha-Hawaii squad had invested in preparation before arriving at Kohanaiki, securing a pre-meet training session with professional surfer Makua Rothman. That connection between elite professional surfing and high school competition is precisely what BIIF's growing calendar is starting to formalize: a genuine pipeline from island breaks to competitive careers, built on scholastic records that college programs and surf industry scouts now track alongside open-division results.

Kohanaiki's exposed break, prone to shifting winds and inconsistent sets, placed real demands on event management Saturday. Blustery conditions compressed some heats and complicated judging throughout the day, putting responsibility on coordinators to keep competition fair and surfers safe on an unfamiliar west-side venue. That the meet ran to completion was itself a logistical achievement for a league still establishing its operational footing.

For families and coaches on the west side, the location shift carries immediate practical weight: no pre-dawn drives across the island, no overnight stays, no travel costs folded into an already stretched school-sports budget. Removing those barriers widens the pool of athletes who can realistically compete, building the kind of local depth that sustains a program through its early seasons and positions it to develop talent on both sides of the island.