‘I absolutely loved that board’: Custom board for disabled surfer stolen ahead of surf contest

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A burglary at the Ewa Hotel in Waikiki has left one competitive surfer beached.

Spike Kane was set to hit the waters of Waikiki Beach this week for Access Surf’s Hawaii Adaptive Surfing Championship, but Sunday morning, he found that his custom made board was gone, Kane spending the rest of the day searching for answers.

“We checked to make sure no staff had moved it and then they checked in the storage room.” Kane told Hawaii News Now. “We went all around the property, couldn’t find it.”

Kane says that Hotel security showed him footage of two individuals on a moped taking his board at about 9:00 p.m. Saturday night from the Hotel garage.

What was missing? A custom adaptive surfboard that costs about $1,000.

“It’s difficult because I absolutely loved that board.” Kane said. “It’s custom made just for me and it worked really well and so you know it’s taken away my comfort level.”

Once word got out that the board was stolen, the community took action with the Waikiki beach boys on the look out, along with multiple social media posts to help locate the board and even World Champion surfer Makua Rothman offered his help to get Kane a new board before Wednesday’s competition.

“That’s just a testimony to what a tightknit community this is and how supportive they’ve always been for adaptive surfing.” Kane said.

Kane has also filed a police report, .but says he will not press charges.

“You really don’t know what those people are going through, you don’t want to add to their trauma or drama or whatever is going on.” Kane said. “At the end of the day, it’s just the board and nobody’s hurt, nobody’s injured and it’ll show up, I’m pretty sure.”

If anyone has seen or found the board, contact AccesSurf Hawaii.

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