Honolulu Fish Fry 2014

This past weekend’s fourth annual Aloha Boardshop Fish Fry was a doozy. Held at the historic birthplace of modern surfing, under the watchful eye of Duke Kahanamoku. This year’s contest featured 30 teams competing for schwag bags and bragging rights during a fun south swell . The rules are simple: surf together with your team, ride a random board based on a number you pull and have fun! About 10 minutes before your heat begins, you pull a random number from a hat. That number is assigned to a surfboard in a stable of locally shaped fish-style surfboards. The surfboards are abstract shapes, twin fin or four fin, short, wide and weird! You never know what you’re going to get and sometimes it might not be that functional. Adding to a spontaneous time in the water. Some teams are made up of families, friends or both making the time surfing together a fun experience instead of a competitive one. It’s a like a super session with only you and your friends in the lineup! Your goal as a team is to put up as many points as possible for waves ridden, so you want to make sure everybody on your team gets good waves and cheers each other on. The conversations between team members mid-heat is an exhilarating combination of seriousness, excitement, encouragement and laughter. Those adjectives are what surfing is all about, making the Fish Fry a special event considering that Queens is Duke Kahanamoku’s home break.