LA JOLLA, Calif. – "A perfect playground."
 
That's how Noa Kerner of the University of California San Diego men's rowing team describes growing up in Waimanalo, Hawaii, which is an experience he says he wouldn't trade for anything. With the mountains to one side and the ocean to the other, Hawaii was an ideal place to grow up, Kerner feels.
 
Before coming to UC San Diego, Hawaii was all that Kerner knew, as his family has been there for generations. On his father's side, Kerner's grandfather came to Hawaii as a weatherman on the destroyer ships during World War II.
 
On his mother's side, Kerner's grandmother is half native Hawaiian, part Chinese, and part Portuguese. Kerner's grandmother shared memories with him about growing up in Hawaii.
 
"One time when my grandma came and visited, she broke out all these stories," Kerner shared. "She talked about things like what it was like before the highways were built, how you could sleep on the beaches and no one would care, and what it was like seeing the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What she'd tell us was incredible."
 
Kerner's grandmother and mother spent some time in Ohio, but eventually came back to Hawaii, where Kerner was born and raised. One of Kerner's favorite things about growing up in Hawaii was his experience canoeing.
 
"There's no rowing [in Hawaii], so I did six-man canoe paddling and that was so much fun," Kerner shared. "You live in the ocean. Me and my friends, that's all we would do."
 
Kerner and his friends would begin training as early as 4:30 a.m. and push each other to be their best. The hard work paid off, as they successfully completed many challenging races.
 
"I think I've crossed the Molokai to Oahu channel three times in a six-man canoe," Kerner recalled. "We got to compete in Tahiti too in a world championship that we qualified for by doing the Molokai race, and we got second down there as juniors in high school."
 
After high school, Kerner decided to come to UC San Diego. It took some time for him to adjust to the differences between Hawaii and California.
 
"When I first came here, I was a fish out of water," Kerner recollected. "When I was in high school, I literally wore shoes to school maybe five days out of my four years there… That's how everyone did it. When I first came here, I'd bike around barefoot and go to class barefoot and I got dirty looks. I was like, 'What's wrong? I'm not used to this.'"
 
One thing that smoothed the transition for Kerner was joining the men's rowing team, of which he is now a team captain. Kerner joined the team right after coming to UC San Diego.
 
"Rowing is great in the fact that you join it and you're thrown into a family," Kerner explained. "I got thrown in and I felt like I was already a part of this school. I didn't have to find a club or something else; I found my thing."
 
During his time at UC San Diego, Kerner has continued to embrace his Hawaiian roots away from home. He enjoys his time with other scholar-athletes who also grew up in Hawaii, like Maile Heyer of the women's rowing team and Wyatt Harrison of the men's volleyball team. For his friends who are not from Hawaii, Kerner still finds ways to share his home with them.
 
"My mom comes out for Crew Classic in the spring and throws a mini luau," Kerner shared. "I'll invite some of my friends over and we have a little Hawaii crew. It's a lot of fun."
 
Reminders of Hawaii are important to Kerner. Because he is away from his family for most of the year, Kerner finds ways to feel connected from a distance.
 
"My dad was really into playing slack-key guitar, which is the traditional Hawaiian guitar," Kerner said. "Now I play guitar because of that and I know three pieces by heart. If I'm sad I break it out and it takes me back."
 
Despite being away from Hawaii, Kerner feels that he can still embody Hawaiian culture while in San Diego.
 
"Hawaiian culture to me is embracing the spirit of aloha," Kerner said. "That has to do with being humble, respecting others, being nice to people, and understanding where you're from and what you've been given… In Hawaii, you wave to someone, they wave back to you, and you wave back to them. It's what you do."
 
Although Kerner is considering traveling elsewhere after graduating from UC San Diego, he is confident that he will eventually return to Hawaii.
 
"I think it'd be cool to go somewhere international after college," Kerner said. "I've learned so much going from Hawaii to San Diego, I can't even imagine what I'd learn if I went somewhere else. I'm going to raise my family in Hawaii though. I'll want my kids to have that experience because it's so much fun."
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
With 30 national team championships, nearly 150 individual titles and the top student-athlete graduation rate among Division II institutions in the United States, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program annually ranks as one of the most successful in the country.  The Tritons sponsor 23 intercollegiate sport programs that compete on the NCAA Division I and II levels and, in summer 2020, will transition into full Division I status as a member of the Big West Conference.  UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent.  A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.  In competition, more than 1,300 UC San Diego student-athletes have earned All-America honors.
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