West Maui ocean academy counts $30K in storm damage

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A West Maui nonprofit that teaches keiki ocean safety and environmental stewardship is assessing tens of thousands of dollars in damage after back-to-back storms battered its facilities and “floating classroom.”

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Kahakukahi Ocean Academy, known as KOA, runs programs for schools across Maui using a traditional Hawaiian canoe, or waʻa, and a classroom space in Lāhainā. Founder Zane Kekoa Schweitzer said the group was still recovering from Hurricane Lala when Hurricane Lowell swept through and caused more destruction.

“We sustained substantial damage to our classroom space, which we call our Ocean Academy. Our solar system blew off and got destroyed,” Schweitzer said. “And as well, one of our classrooms, the wind blew right through the garage doors and destroyed one of the classrooms. So both of our roll-up doors pushed right through with the wind.”

Schweitzer said the waʻa, a key teaching tool and “floating classroom” for students, also needs major repairs.

“This floating classroom has been essential to our curriculum, especially since we’re in that transitional phase of setting our roots in a new location,” he said.

Teachers who partner with KOA say the damage has disrupted hands-on lessons in and around the ocean. Crosby Beam, a teacher at Maui Prep, said his students relied on the canoe-based program for real-world learning.

“We would do on-site learning. And we would use the waʻa a lot. And I mean, that was really pivotal, actually,” Beam said.

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The storms have forced KOA and its partner schools to cancel scheduled ocean activities. Danny Goya, director of strategies and innovation at the Mālama ʻĀina Foundation, said he had planned to bring teachers to the program in mid-September but had to call it off.

“We were impacted the week of,” Goya said. “We actually didn’t do, you know, our normal cadence in doing an ocean activity.”

Some students are already looking ahead to when the waʻa is back in the water. Haleakalā Waldorf School teacher Jenny Foster said her class had to postpone a planned trip.

“Unfortunately, we did not get to go out on the waʻa, which means we’re going to have to go back,” Foster said. When she asked one young student what she was looking forward to next time, “Going on the waʻa.”

KOA estimates roughly $30,000 in damage to its Lāhainā classroom, storage areas, solar system and canoe.

The nonprofit is now asking the community for help raising money to make repairs before fall school groups are scheduled to return.

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