Youth sports like soccer and baseball always seem to have fundraisers for that one "big trip."

Imagine having to deal with 15 of those in one year.

That's what many of the state's elite youth surfers — and their parents — are facing.

The opening day of the Burger King Hawai'i Amateur Surfing Association State Championships ran yesterday at Ala Moana Bowls, and many of the surfers are hoping to fare well this weekend in order to advance to a national championship contest at Huntington Beach, Calif. in October.

"The list goes on and on and on," said Jill Smith, mother of three youth competitors in the contest. "This is such an expensive sport because of the travel."

The Smiths live on Kaua'i, so they have to pay for trips to O'ahu several times a year just to compete in the major Hawai'i contests. Then there are several other events in California.

Jill estimated that it costs the family around $20,000 per year to enter surfing contests. Her oldest son, Alex, is 16 and will make about 15 surfing trips in 2007.

"The more contests you do, the more you get your name out," Alex said. "And the more you get your name out, the more successful you can be."

Because of the travel costs the surfers face, organizations like HASA are evolving into pre-professional training events. This year, for the first time, the state championships is offering prize money.

"The sport is changing, and we need to keep up if we want to keep supporting our kids," contest director Bert Ishimaru said. "A big reason why we're offering prize money this year is to help some of the kids get to other contests outside Hawai'i."

Mike Gerard, executive director of the California-based Surfing America organization, said the definition of amateurism no longer applies in the sport of surfing.

In addition to receiving prize money, many youth surfers are sponsored by surf-related companies.

"That's the nature of the beast in this sport," Gerard said. "The fact is, all the good kids are getting paid one way or another. There's no way around it. If we told all the sponsored kids that they couldn't compete, there might not be any left."

Gerard is encouraging HASA officials to change the organization's acronym to HSA, thus eliminating the word amateur.

Rainos Hayes, team manager for Billabong Hawai'i, said he received "a trophy and dinner at the banquet" when he was an amateur competitor in the 1980s. But he acknowledged that the sport has evolved tremendously since then.

"We never even traveled off the island back then," he said. "Now the kids have to travel to the Neighbor Islands a couple times a year, and then California a couple times a year. The really good ones go to Australia, or Portugal, or where ever the next big event is.

"Once the kids start winning on the top level here at home, the only way they can continue to improve is to travel to other events. The kids who don't travel, unfortunately, get passed by."

Monyca Byrne-Wickey of Maui is considered one of the best female surfers in the state. She gets an annual travel fund from her sponsors — who do not allow her to disclose the amount — but it still does not cover every trip she makes.

"I do about 12 inter-island trips a year, so just that is a lot," said Byrne-Wickey, 16. "The sponsors are great, but we still need more, so I think it's cool that we can make money in these contests now. Every little bit helps."

Many of the surfers set up their own versions of fundraising. The Smiths, for example, pick fruit from their backyard and sell it along Kaua'i roadsides.

Byrne-Wickey and other members of the Hana Surf Team set up a hamburger stand at surf contests on Maui.

Others, like the Kahokuloa family from Kaua'i, make great sacrifices.

Palani Kahokuloa quit his full-time construction job this year for a part-time role at Aloha Airlines. The payoff? His 12-year-old son, Kaoli, gets to travel for free to compete in surfing contests.

"We need help from our families to pay the bills now," said Elea Kahokuloa, Kaoli's mother. "But it's Kaoli's dream to surf, and we do what we can to help him pursue his dream."

This weekend, the Kahokuloas will be camping at Magic Island to save on hotel costs.

Another Kaua'i parent, Amy Galtes, has two sons in this week's contest. "Travel is part of the sport," she said. "It seems crazy to be spending all this money, but it's what the boys love to do and so we support it."

The state championships will continue today and tomorrow at Ala Moana Bowls.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.