Surf's up! Hawaii may soon become the first state in the nation to recognize surfing as an official high school sport.When Heather Masters, 16, moved from Oklahoma Oklahoma (ōkləhō`mə), state in SW United States. It is bordered by Missouri and Arkansas (E); Texas, partially across the Red R. (S, W); New Mexico, across the narrow edge of the Oklahoma Panhandle (W); and Colorado and Kansas (N). to Hawaii last year, she set out not only to learn surfing surfing, sport of gliding toward the shore on a breaking wave. Surfers originally used long, cumbersome wooden boards but now ride lightweight synthetic boards that allow a greater degree of maneuverability. but also to compete--until she found out she couldn't, at least not on a team at her school, Moanalua High, in Honolulu. "It would be cool to compete against people from different schools," she says on a pier near Waikiki. In Hawaii, where even bicycles have surfboard racks, concerns about liability, safety, and cost have long kept surfing out of high school athletics athletics or track and field also track-and-field games Variety of sport competitions held on a running track and on the adjacent field. It is the oldest form of organized sports, having been a part of the ancient Olympic Games from c. . Students have found ways around the rules, forming their own clubs, though they haven't been able to use their schools' names in competitions. But a decision in May by the State Board of Education will let Hawaii's 44 public schools create surfing teams if they choose to. The policy is expected to be implemented next year, after guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. are drafted by safety experts and education officials. Hawaii would become the first state to recognize surfing as a team sport in schools. STUDENTS, NOT SLACKERS Administrators still harbor reservations, but the opposition has been overcome by public lobbying to make the ancient sport of hee nahlu (pronounced HEH-ay NAH-lu), or wave sliding, a regular part of student life. Some hope the decision will dispel the image of surfers
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COMPETITION'S PRICE Others worry that school-sponsored competitions will ruin their sport. At Moanalua, Robert Patcho, 17, frets that the waves would get even more crowded. And Jazminn Yamamoto, 17, says competition might distract from surfing's true goal: communion communion: see Eucharist; Lord's Supper. with the ocean. "I've played a high school sport, and when there's a lose-win situation your motives change," he says. "You just want to win, and you forget why you really started." Michele Kayal writes about Hawaii for The Times; additional reporting by Elizabeth Mayer Elizabeth Mayer (1884 - 1970), German-born American translator and editor, closely associated with W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, and other writers and musicians. In the 1940s her homes in Long Island and New York served as an artistic salon for many emigré writers. . |
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