“Surfing is a metaphor. You fall off your board; you get back on. That’s life.”
So advised Dr. Richard Kebo, Executive Director of Surfrider Spirit Sessions, at Wednesday night’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program guest lecture held on campus.
The Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership lecture series invites business and community leaders, including Hogan alumni, to Chaminade University to share their experiences in entrepreneurship and to impart words of wisdom, advice, and encouragement. The series aims to expose Chaminade students to real-world examples of entrepreneurial success in Hawaii, demonstrating how what they are learning leads to real career outcomes post-graduation.
The last Hogan lecture of the 2026 speaker series featured a former consultant to Hawaiian Airlines and current entrepreneur, educator, and nonprofit leader.
In his talk, Dr. Kebo told Hogan students that success in all areas of life depends on commitment, hard work, and approaching endeavors not with the mindset of what you can get out of it, but rather what you can give.
Kebo assumed the leadership role at Surfrider Spirit Sessions just four weeks before he visited Chaminade University. Surfrider Spirit Sessions, established 20 years ago, is a not-for-profit organization that engages and mentors adjudicated and at-risk youth through surfing, exposing troubled young people to the ocean’s healing and equalizing power and the determination it takes to learn to surf.
As in surfing, success in life, entrepreneurship, and career depends on perseverance, Kebo said, a lesson just as relevant to all of us as it is to the youth partners Surfrider Spirit works with.
You also must be willing to show up, get involved, and chase opportunities wherever they may turn up, he said.
“I’m a local boy,” Kebo told the Hogan students. “Us local kids, sometimes we don’t get as many opportunities, but I’ve figured out a way to find those opportunities, and it’s just getting involved.”
During his lecture, Kebo shared the struggles his own operations are currently experiencing.
He owns a local surfboard and paddle board manufacturing company that’s still fighting to turn a profit. Kebo took over as leader of Surfrider Spirit at a time when it’s increasingly struggling to find outside financial support to keep serving the community.
“As a nonprofit, you have to find funding,” Kebo said.
Furthermore, a spinoff nonprofit founded to financially support Surfrider Spirit, a cultural tour company called Royal Adventures, is facing its own challenges in the current downturn in Hawaii’s tourism industry. Royal Adventures markets ocean sports adventures and other excursions to tourists with an emphasis on culturally relevant activities, or activities that educate guests on Hawaiian culture and history.
The challenges are real, but Kebo remains undeterred, sharing several initiatives he and his team are working on to turn their difficulties around.
Facing a tough, competitive, and shrinking market in Waikiki, Royal Adventures is branching out, marketing tours to active military members on the island. The nonprofit is also pursuing potential partnerships with schools.
In addition, Royal Adventures reached out to other local nonprofits to seek room for collaboration and growth. This effort is now bearing fruit, he said, taking tourists away from Waikiki and into the mountains of Oahu, where partner organizations are getting them involved in ecological restoration and invasive species eradication.
Never underestimate the potential power of collaboration, he said. “If you can amplify the people that you are collaborating with, it’s a win-win situation all the way around,” Kebo said. “It’s not easy to do.”
‘Flipping the Script’
Kebo keeps busy running his manufacturing business while leading two nonprofits, as both organizations work to find firmer footing in a difficult economic climate. The adventure isn’t over, but Kebo reflected on his more than two decades of success in business and community involvement, and said he regrets nothing.
One winning strategy for success, he said, is counterintuitive: when pursuing any venture, don’t think about money first.
He called it “flipping the script,” approaching new ventures thinking about “not what I could get, but what I could offer.” Money will come from the value of your output and contributions, he advised.
That, and perseverance.
“It’s like surfing,” he said. “If you want to catch that wave, you’ve got to commit.”
“The same thing with business.”