Friday, July 13, 2001
Life’s road led Pua‘a Name a sport, any sport.
back to surfing
After detours into many,
many other sports, Maka
Pua'a sticks with her favoriteBy Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-BulletinMore likely than not, Oveta Namakaokalani Emiko Pua'a of Maui has competed in it or at least tried it at some point in her lifetime.
The odds are good also that the Maui High health teacher, known to most as "Maka," has not only competed in it, but done so very well and as a pioneer of sorts.
Since she first tried it as a junior in high school 33 years ago, surfing has been Pua'a's favorite.
Before taking up surfing, volleyball -- the favored sport of her big family -- was No. 1. Along the way, basketball, soccer, track and field, field hockey and canoe paddling -- not to mention riding waves on a shortboard, longboard and bodyboard -- have all figured into the mix.
"She was so physically talented," said Chris McLachlin, current TV color commentator for the University of Hawaii Wahine and the man Pua'a named her most influential coach in any sport from their days together with the Nick's Fishmarket AAA club team in the early 1970s. "I knew she could dominate in practically any sport she tried," he added.
As the Kamehameha Schools' senior captain and middle blocker, Pua'a led the Warriors to the first-ever state girls volleyball title over Hilo High in 1969. Pua'a took second in the long-jump at the state track and field meet later in her senior year, and also played on the Warriors' girls basketball team.
Pua'a continued as a three-sport athlete in volleyball, basketball and field hockey at Pacific University in Oregon the following school year. But the next year, she transferred to Portland State for higher-quality competition.
Missing home and the surf too much, however, Pua'a again transferred, this time to Brigham Young-Hawaii. Pua'a spent a year with the Seasiders before her final collegiate move to town and the University of Hawaii.
During Pua'a's first season on the UH volleyball team, 1973, the Wahine were still a club team. But in 1974, Pua'a's last year of collegiate volleyball, the now storied Wahine program embarked on its first official collegiate campaign. Among the 5-foot-7 middle-blocker's teammates during that inaugural year were legendary setter Joyce Kapuaala Ka'apuni and McLachlin's wife, Beth.
"I'm honored," said Pua'a, who turns 49 on Sunday, of being one of the first Wahine. "I've never really thought about it as something bigger than life, though it probably is."
The Wahine were 9-1 under coach Alan Kang that first season, the only one without current coach Dave Shoji at the helm. Their lone loss came to UCLA in the national final.
After finishing at UH, Pua'a played some local semipro volleyball and then in B-team tournaments with four of her five sisters and a friend.
Besides the volleyball, there were recreational basketball and soccer, but the long years of pounding on her knees forced her to give up land-based sports in 1985, the same year she took up competitive longboarding. (Though she is occasionally coaxed back into playing in beach doubles volleyball tournaments).
"I always surfed; that never stopped," said Pua'a, who primarily rode shortboards during her early years of surfing. "But a friend suggested longboarding instead of shortboarding to lessen the strain on my knees.
"With a longboard, it's a lot like the hula, real graceful. It's like you can actually dance the hula on a longboard."
As in her other athletic endeavors, Pua'a experienced success in competitive longboarding and continues to do so. She also occasionally competes in shortboarding and bodyboarding competitions, though typically only when they are associated with a larger event that includes longboarding.
Pua'a has competed in Costa Rica and on the U.S. mainland, but primarily focuses on the local contest scene, like the Hawaiian Longboard Federation's Steinlager Series. Pua'a is the oldest competitor in the HLF's Wahine division (20 and above), and one of its very best.
Heading into this weekend's Aston Hotels Surf Classic at Ala Moana Bowl, the third in the six-event series, Pua'a and four-time defending series overall champion Pinoi Makalena are tied in the ratings. Pua'a won the first contest of the series and took bridesmaid honors in the second, while Makalena reversed her results.
Pua'a said Makalena and she are good friends and, though it would be nice to win the overall title this year, she is more concerned with pushing the limits of her own surfing and hopefully the conventional thinking of what a woman can do on a surfboard as well. Most important to her, however, is to be a role model for younger surfers, Pua'a added.
One surfer who has taken notice is 17-year-old Kahekili Ka'a, a fellow Maui longboarder who has traveled with Pua'a to several surf contests.
"I watch all the pros, but wish I could try being like her," he said. "She does it all and she does it with style."