HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – After nine days of nonstop action off the shores of Surf City, El Salvador, Team Hawaii returns to Honolulu with a Gold medal team finish in the 2022 ISA World Junior Surfing Championship.

“It was really amazing.” Surfer Ewelei’ula Wong told Hawaii News Now. “I love the support I get from my my friends, my family, my friends from school, my family from school, everywhere and from surfing, all around it’s truly an amazing feeling.”

Team Hawaii touched down at Monday afternoon carrying some brand new hardware, besting a record 45 National teams to secure the overall team gold after taking silver in 2019 — their first team gold since 2014.

An impressive feat for a squad that was put together pretty swiftly, now reaping the benefits of being champions.

“I think it was special because our team was really made up of us being a family and working together and so coming home to our families with everybody being together it just meant a lot to us.” Coach Chris Martin said.

The Gold finish, thanks in part to break out performances from the Hawaii surfers in the boys and girls 18-under category, sweeping both divisions.

“Yeah for Shane (Dorian) and I just wanted to keep it simple.” Coach Martin said. “We knew everybody was capable, we just wanted to give them the best opportunity for success.”

One of the Standouts was 17-year-old Ewelei’ula Wong, who had to claw her way back to the podium after a late round setback.

“Yeah I mean I lost around three, so I had to go through all the repechage.” Wong said. “I kind of had to fight my way to the top, so I feel like all my hard work is paying off.”

Despite coming home with the gold, Wong says the biggest prize is representing Hawaii in a sport that is deeply engrained into the islands.

“It’s everything.” Wong said. “It’s like my life goal to represent Hawaii and this is where surfing was created by my ancestors and my kupuna, so it’s really amazing.”

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