HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The shores of Kaohao were adorned with flowers Sunday morning after a paddle out honoring the life of Hopena Pokipala, who died in a car crash in Waimanalo last month.
“It was really, really special, really a great way to pay tribute to Hopena and the guy that he was,” Pokipala’s friend George Wilson said. “The beach was crowded till the eye can see, and the amount of people that paddled out with us was amazing.”
Pokipala, 30, earned his bachelor’s degree in international business and marketing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
After graduating, Pokipala started an oyster shucking business, Oysters Hawaii, with his wife, former Miss Hawaii and Miss Hawaii USA Allison Chu, whom he just married earlier this year.
“There was a part (during the service) where Allie, Hopena’s wife, sang a beautiful song, and you can just feel everyone just start to ball, and it was really, really special,” Wilson shared.
Pokipala was also an avid surfer and paddler.
On Sunday, several of his friends raced in the Molokai Hoe, a 38-mile crossing of the Kaiwi Channel from the “Friendly Isle” to Oahu.
“A lot of us were really torn we didn’t get to be at the service today but in a way we got to honor him by crossing that channel and it’s something that I know that he’s done before and it mattered a lot to him and it embodies his spirit,” Pokipala’s friend Nicholas Foti said.
To symbolically have Pokipala with them during the race, Lanikai Canoe Club decorated their canoe with his funeral announcement.
“Hopena was just an amazing young man,” Foti added. “A lot of the club values are the same values that he embodied and that is community and always supporting one another.”
Previous coverage:
- Well-known waterman killed in Waimanalo crash remembered as ‘an ambassador of aloha’
- Paddle-out honors beloved young waterman killed in Waimanalo crash
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