Maui Surf Day Brings Boards and Good Vibes to Groms Who Lost Everything in Wildfires

Maui's wildfire survivors are still healing from the disaster, which destroyed Lahaina and took homes and lives.

The surf community has been united in recovery efforts, with watermen like Kai Lenny and Archie Kalepa active on the frontlines, while shaper Jud Lau organized a surfboard drive.

Boards 4 Buddies (B4B) is also helping survivors cope with stress through surfing, by giving new boards to groms who lost theirs in the fires.

Founded by fourth-grade teacher Brit Oliphant, B4B is a nonprofit based in Hawaii that helps "connect deserving youth with pre-loved surf and skate equipment along with the necessary safety and accessory gear to put it into play."

Pro surfers Matt Meola, Ian Gentil, and Albee Layer work with the organization.

The post above shows a community surf day held at Ho'okipa Beach Park over the weekend, where B2B connected kids with new boards. Local pros like Lenny, Paige Alms, and the guys mentioned above all showed up to surf.

B4B captioned the post:

"Grief is like the ocean; it comes in waves. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it’s overwhelming. Thank you @pedro.robalinho for getting us all together today and thank you to our hometown pros for stoking out all the kids. It felt so good to see everyone smile. 📸 @mauitomosnapshots"

Lenny posted about the beach day in his story, writing:

"We're down here at Ho'okipa. We're doing a surf day with all the groms, some of which lost everything. And other kids are down here to support their friends, it's awesome. Great to see Maui's community showing up like they have this entire time through this tragedy, but it's time to have fun. So we're gonna go surfing."

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