The Hawaiʻi Sports Hall of Fame is scheduled to celebrate its 2026 Class of Inductees on Aug. 13. And for the first time in its history, a skateboarder will be honored among its legendary athletes.
Darren Ho was one of Town & Country’s first sponsored pro skaters. He was known for shredding pools and bowls with grace throughout the 1970s, and he traveled from contest to contest around the country all throughout that era.
Ho joined HPR to talk about his life as a pro-skater, going all the way back to his hanabada days.
“Being a skateboarder … in the '70s, when I was going through the whole transition of, you know, turning pro and traveling and stuff like that, wasn't looked on with older people as being something like a great, you know, an athlete or anything like that,” Ho said.
“Now it's with the Olympics and stuff. It's crazy because now it’s like you're somebody, you know. You can walk around with your head proud and stuff like that, and I love it.”
His time as a travelling professional skater with Town & Country began in the tenth grade.
“A lot of times when I would travel to these weird places, you know, wherever might be Tennessee or Texas or whatever the case may be, right?” he said.
“I'd land there and just wonder and be looking around, going, ‘I hope somebody's here to pick me up’ because I have no idea, you know what I mean, where the hell I am.”
Ho’s time as a career skateboarder came to an abrupt end due to burnout and homesickness, he told HPR — but even after quitting the spotlight, he never quit the sport.
“I never stopped. I always loved skateboarding.”
Now, with his latest induction to the Hawaiʻi Sports Hall of Fame, he's been on a mission to bring his passion for skating back to the public.
“I love being creative when you're young to be able to try something but keep trying. … That's an awesome feeling.”
“I'm not ready to, you know, just walk around the block, and that's my exercise right now. I go skating maybe once a week, and man, usually for one week, I walk around with a smile on my face.”
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 10, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
