My name is Vasco Freitas and I am 13 years old. Waipio is where I go to surf with my family and friends and where I like to go to get away from the concrete world. It is also important to me because I have been going down there since I was very little. This is where I learned to surf and swim. Surfing makes me feel happy and when I am done I feel energized. The only thing that I wanted to do for my birthday was to go down and surf, but now that the road is closed I cannot. With the road closed it takes over an hour to go surfing. I miss it already.

Waipio is the heart of the Big Island. I’ve driven and walked the road many times. The dangers are being exaggerated. The closure was a major but correctable mistake. All residents of the island should be able to visit. Tourist traffic can be restricted to appropriate tour vehicles. Meanwhile, a long-overdue plan to improve the road can be developed.

I have surfed for nearly sixty years. If there were a true emergency, I could accept losing this important part of my life, but the report that the closure is based on does not outline an emergency. I have to think that the Mayor did not read the risk assessment in that report but relied on others to interpret it for him. Visitor traffic has become too heavy in recent years and should be regulated.