Kamu Auwae made a clean sweep at Duke's OceanFest yesterday by winning the C4 Waterman SUP Surf-Off open division.

The 30-year-old Makaha local surfed brilliantly all week at the OceanFest. He also won the Kicker Audio presents Toes on the Nose Rabbit Kekai Hawaiian Longboard Classic on Thursday.

"It's just an added bonus," said Auwae of winning the Surf-Off. "It's been a long three days, and it was hard work getting here because you had to qualify through the race."

There were 24 competitors (18 men, three women and three kids) in the Surf-Off. They qualified through an intense stand-up paddle race on Thursday.

The race was a spectator-friendly event because non-surfers and tourists could clearly follow the action. While that was a nod to the past beach boy races, the Surf-Off was a display of stand-up paddle surfing's future. Auwae said the judges rewarded more for turns and cutbacks versus traditional noseriding.

"Watching guys surf, do turns and implement the paddle, they were getting higher scores, so just from that experience I changed my whole style to just turning as much as possible from the beginning all the way to the end," he said.

"I come from a longboarding background, so I always want to do well, and stand-up surfing is a new thing, but I want to do well in whatever I enter. Any win is good."

The 4-foot wave-face heights, coupled with light trade winds, produced highly contestable conditions for the stand-up paddle surfers. Queens was the perfect stage for Auwae to show off his progressive, powerful style.

By Daniel Ikaika Ito / Special to the Star-Advertiser            Kamu Auwae photos by Bernie Baker