On any Sunday between spring and Labor Day, Farrington Highway backs up in the same predictable way past the Hawaii Polo Club's oceanfront field. Trucks angle onto the grass on the makai side. Coolers come out. Somewhere around the second chukker, a handful of kids peel off toward the water and come back sandy in time for the band. It is the kind of ritual that feels permanent, the sort of thing a neighborhood organizes its Sundays around without thinking too hard about it.
This year it almost didn't happen at all, and the season that did happen doesn't end when most people who checked the club's own spring announcement would expect. Closing Day is this Sunday, September 6, tied to Labor Day Weekend. If you read the club's April press release, you'd have circled a date roughly a week earlier.
What the Flooding Actually Took
Back-to-back Kona low storms hit Oahu's North Shore in March 2026, and Mokuleia took some of the worst of it. Floodwaters reached roughly eight feet at one farm near Olohio Street, wiping out ulu and mango trees along with chickens and goats. Blake Briddell, who farms a lot in the area, described the aftermath plainly: "One of the biggest challenges right now is simply getting in and out." Roads stayed muddy and impassable for equipment for weeks, and the recovery effort was framed around supporting somewhere between 35 and 40 farming families in that stretch alone.
Camp Erdman, less than a mile from the polo field and marking its 100th year in 2026, took its own hit. Senior program director Eric Tutje showed reporters where the camp's fire pit and gaga ball area used to stand before floodwater cut through the grounds and the pit "washed away and is now part of the beach." The same water that flooded farmland also tore through the camp's ropes course and Kamehameha field.
A Three-Week Delay Nobody Had to Advertise Twice
The polo club sits less than a mile from both of those sites, and the flooding pushed its own calendar back. General manager Devon Dailey, a third-generation polo player, announced in late April that the club's 63rd season would launch April 26, later than its usual spring start, after the flood delay. The opening Sunday leaned into the club's working-ranch character rather than pretending nothing had happened: a paniolo-themed match with halftime line dancing and the band 808 Imposters, the kind of afternoon Dailey summed up in a single line: polo on the North Shore is pretty casual.
The Season Turned Its Calendar Into a Relief Fund
Instead of treating the disruption as a footnote, the club built its makeup schedule around the community that had just lost farmland and camp infrastructure a few hundred yards away. The Cinco de Mayo match doubled as a Waialua Flood Relief Fundraiser, with food from Papi's Empanadas, salsa lessons at halftime, and the band 11th Hour playing the closing set. A Mother's Day Mimosa Party and a Memorial Day Weekend Bash followed, alongside a run of international matchups that brought teams from Argentina and India to the same field where Duke Kahanamoku threw the opening pitch back in 1963.
None of that was filler. It was a season absorbing a three-week hole at the front end without cutting anything from the middle.
The Real Finish Line Moved, Not Just the Start
Here's the detail that's easy to miss if you only saw the April coverage: the club's own launch announcement said matches would run every Sunday "through Sep. 1." That's not what happened. The published 2026 schedule puts Closing Day on September 6, Labor Day Weekend, a full week past that original mark.
| Date | On the field | Food | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 23 | India vs. Hawaii Rematch | Olay Thai | Bollywood dance workshop at halftime |
| Aug 30 | Al Lopaka Day / Hawaii Throwback | Lanakila Catering | Hand polo competition at halftime |
| Sept 6 | Labor Day Weekend, Closing Day | Lanakila Catering & Poke Creation's | Season officially ends |
The practical effect is that the club didn't just recover from a three-week delayed start. It stretched its closing weekend past the date it had originally told everyone to expect, folding an extra Sunday into the tail end of the year rather than compressing the season to fit the original window. If you're the kind of household that plans yard projects, out-of-town guests, or weekend errands around "polo wraps up by early September, same as always," this year that assumption is off by about a week.
What Sunday Looks Like If You're Going
Gates open at 11:30 a.m., which is early enough to claim a decent tailgating spot on the makai side before the good views fill in. Matches start at 2 p.m., the band picks up around 5 p.m., and the afternoon runs until sundown. General admission has run $23, with clubhouse seating available for anyone who wants shade and a table over grass and a cooler. It's the same low-key math that's defined the club for six decades: people bring their own food and drinks, dip in the ocean between matches, and treat the whole thing as a Sunday outing rather than a spectator event that requires planning.
The Road Question That Outlasts the Season
One thing polo season doesn't resolve on its own is Mokuleia's access situation. The state's most recent park advisory notes that the Mokuleia vehicle access road into Kaena Point State Park has reopened to permit holders, but flags that some roads previously open before the storms remain closed due to damage, with instructions to heed posted signs. If your Sunday routine includes a walk out toward Kaena Point after the last match, or if guests are planning to combine polo with the hike, that's worth checking before you go rather than assuming the road looks the way it did last year.
The Season Bent. It Didn't Break.
What this year's polo season actually shows is a small, specific piece of how Mokuleia works as a place. A single road in, a handful of institutions that all sit within walking distance of each other, and a community event that responded to a flood by turning its own calendar into a fundraiser rather than skipping a beat. The season didn't run on autopilot through the disruption. It moved its start, extended its finish, and used the weeks in between to route matches, tailgates, and clubhouse dollars back toward the farmers and camp staff still cleaning up down the road.
If you're heading out this Sunday, that's worth knowing before the trucks start lining up on the makai side one more time this year.
If you already treat Sunday polo at the ranch as part of what makes living in Mokuleia worth it, and you're curious what it takes to actually own a piece of this stretch of coastline, NS Luxury Living works this side of the North Shore every day. Reach out to schedule a private consultation or get access to listings before they hit the open market.
