Hawai‘i Pacific University is adding surfing to its athletics department, becoming the first official collegiate surfing program in state history.
The Sharks will compete in the 2027 National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) championships, currently scheduled for June 11-13 in Dana Point, Calif. The team's eight slots for competition involves four for men's shortboard, two for women's shortboard, and one each for men's and women's longboard.
Hawai‘i Pacific's surfing team will hold practices at various sites on O‘ahu, mostly on the south shore.
The Sharks will compete in a handful of competitions throughout the Islands before the NSSA championships, and the team's official will be released at a later date.
At the NSSA championships, HPU will compete against collegiate programs from California, Utah, Florida and the Carolinas.
HPU's addition of surfing follows a successful inaugural season of sanctioned high school surfing in Hawai‘i, which wrapped up with May's state championships in Maui.
Hawai‘i Pacific's addition of surfing comes just a few months after the school announced it was adding a women's flag football team, another team in which the Sharks are the only program in the state to offer the sport.
“This is a historic moment for HPU Athletics and for surfing in Hawaiʻi,” said HPU athletics director Debbie Snell said in a release. “Modern surfing was born here, and until now our own athletes have had to leave home to compete at the college level. We launched women’s flag football this year, and surfing comes with that some conviction. When Hawaiʻi high school students are already excelling at a sport, they should not have to go to another state to keep competing. Starting next spring, a student coming out of a Hawaiʻi high school can surf for HPU and earn a degree, all without leaving the place they are from and call home.”
Hawai‘i Pacific's recruiting efforts in surfing will begin with O‘ahu high schoolers. Interested student-athletes are encouraged to contact Snell via email at desnell@hpu.edu.
Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
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