Murphy siblings chase history at first Hawai‘i high school surf championships

Dillon and Addison Murphy paddled into Hawaii’s first high school state surfing championship carrying Kauai pride, family rivalry and the weight of a sport that spent years fighting for a statewide stage. The siblings, from Island School and Kapaa High School, entered the inaugural HHSAA tournament at Hookipa Beach Park on Maui as part of a field that finally gave school surfing the same official footing as other interscholastic sports.

The championship, held May 1-2 with Kahului Harbor listed as the backup venue, drew 174 student-athletes from 55 schools and included boys’ and girls’ shortboard, longboard and bodyboarding. Kauai Interscholastic Federation teams were represented across all three disciplines, with KIF assigned four boys and four girls shortboard slots, three boys and three girls longboard slots, and two boys and two girls bodyboarding slots.

For the Murphys, the trip to Maui was about more than personal results. Dillon said this was his last chance to compete at states, adding urgency to a moment he and Addison understood could have slipped away before it ever became reality. Their family dynamic added another layer of pressure and humor, with the two joking that the one who finished worse would have to do the dishes. Dillon also described life in a large family as feeling like Thanksgiving dinner every night.

Addison said the siblings are friendly and fiercely competitive, but they still lean on each other and their teammates. That balance reflects what school surfing is becoming on Kauai and across the state: a formal competitive pathway for athletes who have long surfed in clubs, independent contests and open ocean conditions, but not always under school banners.

The first state championship was the result of years of work by Maui surf leaders and state supporters. Maui Interscholastic League surf co-coordinator Kim Ball said the first Maui high school club surf meet was held at Hookipa in 1995. The sport had been considered a high school sport in Hawaii since 2004, but only 13 campuses had formed official teams by 2024, a sign of how limited funding and state support slowed its growth.

That changed in 2025, when the Legislature passed HB 133 to fund the sport and Gov. Josh Green signed Act 141 on May 30. HHSAA announced on July 16, 2025 that surfing would become its 21st state championship sport beginning in spring 2026, making Hawaii the first state in the nation to recognize surfing as an official high school state championship sport.

For Kauai, the Murphys’ run to Hookipa showed how island talent now travels with school identity attached. The first crowns went to Kahuku’s boys and Waialua’s girls, but the bigger win was broader: Hawaii school sports had opened a new lane, and Kauai surfers were there from the start.