California club hosts artistic swimming competition at UH Manoa

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The 2026 Aloha Cup artistic swimming competition has taken over the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatics Complex at the University of Hawaii.

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The competition brings a sport that isn’t very common in the islands front and center.

“This sport is very exciting to watch and acro is something that’s so fun because you get to do it’s all the lifts and all the strokes and fun hybrids,” Athlete Scarlett Krulj told Hawaii News Now. “You get to choose what you get to do and it’s really fun.”

It’s a sport that requires months of training and preparation, making sure every move in the water is in sync and on beat.

That long training is what prompted the host Walnut Creek Aquanuts of California and their head coach, former Olympian Kim Probst, to organize the Hawaii meet.

“We were getting a little bit bogged down by the monotony of being this competitive team and we needed something to fight for and to work for,” Probst said. “We thought, what better way than to have a competition in paradise.”

Eight clubs are competing in 15 different events throughout the three-day event with multiple teams from the continent and even international squads.

“It’s really nice to communicate with people from other teams across the globe and stuff,” Krulj said.

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“This year we have teams from all the way from Greece and we’re hoping to be able to run this event possibly every other year,” Probst added.

About 40 years ago, the Walnut Creek Aquanuts actually hosted events in the islands, and this version of the team is excited to usher in the next wave of Hawaii events.

“The hope is that we would love to host this event possibly every summer, but probably more likely every other year moving forward,” Probst said. “So we’re hoping to bring this meet to one of the islands every other year moving forward and hoping to make it bigger and better each year.”

Even though the focus is on the action in the pool, organizers still want to give teams time to truly experience Hawaii.

“Try to weave the schedule so that it would allow some of the teams to be able to have half days so they can actually do a little bit of their training in the ocean if they want,” Probst said. “So it’s been kind of a magical experience, you might be out for your morning surf and see some legs up in the air with kids training in the mornings.”

While there are no local clubs competing this year, Probst hopes that this year’s event can be the catalyst for more artistic swimming in the islands.

“Maybe this will inspire some local teams to crop up,” Probst said. “That would be fabulous.”

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The 2026 Aloha Cup wraps up on Friday and the event is free to the public.