Surfer Donates $10,000 To Sunset Beach Elementary School

Sunset Beach Elementary School (back, from left) principal Bernadette Tyrell, surfer Mason Ho and Sunset Beach vice principal Teresann Taua with students holding $10,000 in checks. Photo from DOE.

Pro surfer Mason Ho returned to Sunset Beach Elementary March 19 to donate $10,000 — half of the total cash prizes he won last month — to the school he attended from kindergarten through sixth grade.

As winner of the Clif Bar Overall Performance Award (OPA), Ho received $10,000 and the chance to donate an equal amount to any nonprofit of his choice. The funds from the North Shore native will support various school programs and activities at the Haleiwa school, which has some 470 students.

“On behalf of the students, faculty and staff of Sunset Beach Elementary School, we would like to send a huge mahalo to Mason for his generous donation,” said principal Bernadette Tyrell.

The OPA is given to the surfer who demonstrates outstanding skill, courage and style while consistently riding the most challenging waves on the North Shore during the Wave of the Winter contest period for the 2014-2015 winter wave season.