Lahaina surfers shine at Hoʻokipa: Matias Banto and Ione LaTurner take Surfbash Open victories

Matias Banto won the open men and Ione LaTurner claimed the open women at the 37^th annual Hi-Tech / Vissla / Lopez Surfbash at Hoʻokipa Beach Park over the weekend.

The Open Men was the biggest division with 32 surfers. Before he surfed the Open Men, Banto had to surf in three heats of the Boys 16-17 where he finished second to Kahlil Pineres-Schooley. Pineres- Schooley, a junior at Seabury Hall, was the Hawaiʻi High School Activities Association state champion in the inaugural state meet at Hoʻokipa last May. Banto, surfing for Lahainaluna, was fourth at the HHSAA contest.

Banto, a 15-year-old from Lahaina, said after winning, “It was sick, but it was a long day, so I was pretty tired but glad I put it together.”

Banto had to surf seven 20-minute heats in windy, close-out conditions. Still he was trailing in the Open Men final with less than a minute remaining when he paddled into an overhead close-out and went vertical up the face and landed the re-entry, the judges gave him a 4.77 which was enough to edge Eric Roberson by .61 of a point.

“It was hard to hear with all the wind and the waves, but I know I needed a 4 something,” Banto said. “I knew I just needed to complete it.”

On the women’s side, another Lahaina surfer, Kalli Sprenger, had to show her stamina on Sunday. Sprenger surfed two heats of Open Longboard, where she placed third before competing in the Open Women where she placed second. On Saturday, the Maui Prep seventh-grader won the girls 12-13 division.

“It was real windy, and a little choppy, but the waves overall were pretty fun,” Sprenger said. “I did start to get a little tired. But I have a lot of energy, I just surf a lot, so I just get used to it.”

Ione LaTurner won Open Women. With less than two minutes to go in the final, she was able to negotiate the challenging line-up to catch a wave and make a solid turn to edge Sprenger by .37 of point.

LaTurner described her last wave. “It was good, a set wave, thinking it was going to land on my head, then I saw it sort of stay back a little.”

“The waves were a little tricky,” LaTurner said. “I just tried to stay a little calm, knew a wave was going to come for me and it did. Super shallow, really low tide, it was sort of big, it’s a bad combination for here. It was like most of them [were] closing out. [It was] hard to pick the right one.”

Axel Goya, an 11-year-old from Pāʻia, won the second biggest division, the Boys 12U with 20 competitors.

Goya was impressive in his four heats, putting up two scores in the excellent range (8.0-10.0) when scores above 8.0 were rare all weekend.

“It was pretty fun, feels good,” Goya said. “I don’t really know my scores, too conscious on my heat whether I’m going to win or not.”

The Surfbash is part of the Hawaiʻi Surfing Association-Maui series. The next HSA event will be the Minit Medical Urgent Care contest at Kahului Harbor. The holding period will be Dec. 5-23, 2026.

Results

Boys

12U (priority)

1. Axel Goya 13.66
2. Greyson DaProza 9.50
3. Jack Grier 7.50
4. Rocco Swift 5.77

12-13 (priority)

1. Bryce Martins 15.00
2. Elan Bar 10.97
3. Julian Libitsky 6.00
4. Kameron Kimmel 5.17

14-15 (priority)

1. Asher McClenahan 14.67
2. Archer Oliver 11.17
3. Ryder Prouty 10.00
4. Kai McCluskey 9.93

16-17 (priority)

1. Kahlil Pineres-Schooley 13.50
2. Matias Banto 13.00
3. Bode Davis 11.60
4. Seth Jucker 10.20

Open Men

1. Matias Banto 12.87
2. Eric Roberson 12.26
3. Zolten Poulsen 11.80
4. Seth Jucker 11.00
5. Nahuel Messera 10.96
6. Kahlil Pineres-Schooley 4.37

Girls

U12

1. Coco Bitoun 10.00
2. Alice Grier 7.37
3. Harbor Haas 5.44
4. Kajarine Edelhertz 5.00
5. Maya Andrade 4.20

12-13 (priority)

1. Kalli Sprenger 11.66
2. Sayler Udell 7.90
3. Brynn Payne 6.16
4. Tiare Sloan 6.00

14-15 (priority)

1. Ocean Lipstein 11.16
2. Mayli Hack 7.23
3. Baylee Brown 7.04

16-17 (priority)

1. Mikaia Barnes 12.50
2. Kaja Przeciechowska 11.17
3. Ayla Daian 8.33

Open

1. Ione LaTurner 11.60
2. Kalli Sprenger 11.23
3. Mikaia Barnes 10.40
4. Ocean Lipstein 8.93
5. Mayli Hack 5.67
6. Alice Grier 5.20

Mixed Boys & Girls

U10

1. Guide Udell 10.44
2. Felix Swift 8.50
3. Bandit Udell 6.67
4. Jeremiah Skousen 5.24
5. Gordon Grier 5.00
6. Elijah Ching 3.73

Open Longboard

1. Aiden Haas 12.77
2. Lila Sloan 11.67
3. Kalli Sprenger 9.67
4. Peata Lee-Hubin 8.60
5. Ocean Lipstein 8.50
6. Tiare Sloan 6.17

Para

1. Scott Davis 17.67
2. Scott “Scooter” Metcalfe 15.83