From the March 2011 issue of Tracks
Fit To Be King
Keanu Asing has the hopes of Hawaiian surfing resting on his shoulders.
The first thing that strikes you about Hawaiian junior, Keanu Asing is how readily a smile splits his bubbly cheeks. When we catch up on a rainy day at the famed Haleiwa cafe the diminutive dynamo radiates aloha. There’s none of the bashful sheepishness or self-important posturing that is sometimes common amongst adolescent surfers in the spotlight. Keanu carries himself with confidence while preserving the humility that is often the hallmark of the most successful athletes.
The positive and disciplined attitude Keanu demonstrates might in part be attributed to growing up with a father who is a karate expert. “Dad is a third dan blackbelt and competed for thirty years. He use to go to Japan for contests and he was super competitive,” offers Keanu proudly. Keanu, it would seem, has inherited his father’s thirst for competition success. At the time of the interview he was the number one ranked Hawaiian junior surfer and the number two-ranked junior in the USA. His extensive list of accolades includes an under 16 ISA world junior title from 2009.
In the water Keanu is the classic pocket rocket, combining power and precision with the right mix of contemporary moves that are now resume pre-requisites for young surfers. Perhaps borrowing from the mental fortitude that martial experts are known for, Keanu also has a reputation for being a master strategist in competition. Online surf site hookit.com, goes so far as to describe his heat approach as being “Kasparov-like” thus comparing the young Hawaiian’s tactical prowess to that of a chess grand-master. Not bad for a kid who grew up and still lives in Ewa beach, a small community in the sw of Hawaii.
Much rests on the shoulders of the good-natured prodigy. Given Hawaii’s cultural and historical link to surfing there has always been the expectation that they will produce surfers who make their presence felt on the world stage – not only by their surfing but by their conduct. It’s a proud tradition, which begins with The Duke and extends through several generations and includes names like Barry Kanaiaupuni, Jeff Hakman, The Aikau brothers, Dane Keoloha, Larry Bertlamann, Buttons, Michael and Derek Ho, Sunny Garcia and The Irons brothers.
Keanu might be the crown prince at the moment but in terms of ability and attitude he seems destined to one day inherit the throne of Hawaiian surfing.
Below he talks about growing up outside the North Shore Bubble, the forces that have shaped his surfing and carrying the weight of Hawaiian expectation on his shoulders.
I don’t really feel too much pressure to be a top Hawaiian but I really want to do well for Hawaii and to represent it proudly. I just try to have fun and not be the guy who is saying ‘I’m the best.’ I try to just be the same person I always was.
Where I grew up it’s not really a surfing community, it’s a small place called Ewa beach on the sw of the island. I went to the same school as Joel Centeio and Dustin Quizon but some of my friends don’t surf, they’re into like MMA [ Mixed Martial Arts] and maybe haven’t necessarily taken the good road. I’ve seen a few people go down the wrong path. They’re still my friends and I’m not going to judge them any differently.
Where I live in the SW you can get stuck in that kind of mentality where you stay there and you don’t want to leave there. It might not be so much of a good place to be stuck in. You got to get out of there. I love my friends from where I live and I always go back and hang out with them at times. It’s a good place but you just can’t get stuck in one place for the rest of your life.
My dad grew up in Hawaii and my mum was born in Japan. Dad is a third dan blackbelt and competed for thirty years. He use to go to Japan for contests and he was super competitive. He always had a lot of discipline and has been a great coach for life. He got me into surfing – that’s cool – and there’s definitely some kind of competition fire that he gave to me… I love my dad. He has always told me to never give up, just give it your all… I use to do ju jitsu with Kai Garcia at his Do Jo next to Foodland but I’ve never really done it seriously.
All my friends surf in town so I usually just drive to town [the south shore] and surf with them – Ala Moana and Kewalos. All the kids usually go to Kewalos. There’s a whole bunch of kids there every summer– all my buddies. There’s a bunch of us over there including Matty Costa that are the same age who are always pushing each other and competing. We’re like sparring partners and the competition makes it better.
Near home there are a couple of places that get good. When there’s big south swells that’s where you’ll find me.
.On the North Shore I love surfing Haleiwa. All my good friends surf there. That’s where I started surfing on the inside white water and worked my way to the outside… I just love hanging at Haleiwa.
When it’s on I will try and base myself outside the Billabong house at Pipe. Just ‘cause that’s where all the cameras are. I haven’t had ‘one’ yet but when you’re at Pipe it’s kind of about that one wave. When you get that one everyone knows that, okay, ‘he’s a guy that’s going to catch waves’. Next time you have your head down paddling you know no ones going to drop in on you. When you get that one it relieves a bunch of pressure and you can catch a lot more waves, hopefully.
I have a good team behind me. That enables me not to have to worry about everything in the back of my head and just concentrate on my surfing. It’s definitely helped me. John Shimooka and Kurt Jacobs help out with my management and Reinos Hayes is my coach and my right hand man during contests. He’s never given me negative vibes – always positive and without him I don’t know if I’d have accomplished as much. He’s helped me with a lot and definitely pushed my surfing. He’s really a good guy and really a good coach.
If you surround yourself with good surfers you become a good surfer… it’s like any other sport. You just grasp a lot of good things from good people and if you’re with bad people you’re not really going to get a lot out of them.
I think the idea of Aloha is definitely still real. There are guys like Reinos Hayes who definitely spread the Aloha spirit. There’s a lot of Hawaiians who embrace it and some maybe not so much but in every Hawaiian there’s some Aloha. Right now as a young junior coming up in surfing I feel it’s really important to spread the Aloha because an Hawaiian you are branded with it. Hawaii equals Aloha. You have to show your Aloha. It’s like if you went somewhere else you’d want to be treated well. When you see people who come here you have to make them comfortable.
