The Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau
Nov 21 2006 / North Shore, HawaiiRemembering Eddie Aikau and the contest in his honor
To most modern surfers – and even to a lot of the surfers invited to this year’s Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau – that Eddie Aikau name is just a name. Eddie Aikau died bravely, tragically, legendarily, in 1978, before surfers like Makua Rothman, Jamie Sterling and Jamie O’Brien had been born.
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To younger surfers, Eddie Aikau is a name but if you look into the archives of surfing history there are some glimpses of the man who has become a legend – words and visuals which bring to life the reality of one of the greatest Hawaiian surfers/watermen of all time.
In 1966, Bruce Brown produced for national American TV a show about the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational. Eddie was 20 years old when he was invited to this contest, which, like the Eddie, was held in honor of great Hawaiian waterman from the generation before Eddie. On the DVD, there are glimpses of Eddie. Wearing his signature white trunks with a single horizontal stripe, and riding his prized red Dick Brewer gun, Eddie paddles with incredible speed into a windy west peak, gets to his feet blind, makes the drop and comes screaming around the peak: “He had the ultimate Hawaiian style,” Darrick Doerner was quoted in The Encyclopedia of Surfing. “Take off and drop in, big bottom turn, disappear into a mountain of whitewater, pop out, throw his hair back. That was Eddie. Bully style.”
That was Eddie in the water at the 1966 Duke. On land, he stood for a short interview with Bruce Brown. Eddie at 20 was lean and brown, very fit and very shy. He spoke English with such a heavy pidgin accent he sounded like a Fijian boatman. He was that Hawaiian, that local.
Aikau was born to Hawaiian parents in Kahului, Maui in 1946. He learned to surf at 11 and moved to Oahu in 1959. By 1966, he was good enough to be invited to the Duke Invitational at Sunset Beach and that year he made his debut at Waimea Bay. Over the next eight years, Aikau established himself as one of the best – if not the best – Waimea surfers of his generation. Eddie was Hawaiian, he had the ocean in his blood, he knew it in his DNA and he moved with it beautifully.
Aikau also worked as a lifeguard during a time when the North Shore was becoming increasingly popular as a destination for tourists and surfers. In the narration to that 1966 Duke contest, Bruce Brown talks about Eddie as a lifesaver: “Since he lives on the North Shore, he ends up making a lot of rescues unofficially. He lives right on the beach and he’ll hear a ‘Help!’ and he’ll swim out. I think he averages about 30 or 35 rescues a year. You really can’t count the number of lives he has saved. That is one of the things that surfers do that isn’t well known by most people.”
Eddie made the finals of the Duke contest six times from 1966 to 1974, and he was a contender in every Hawaiian event held in big surf. In 1977, Aikau won the Duke event. Three months later, he was one of the crewmen on the Hokulea, a traditional Hawaiian ocean-going canoe that set out from Honolulu to make a passage to Tahiti using traditional Polynesian navigation techniques. The Hokulea left Honolulu on March 15 with a crew of 16. Five hours into rough water in the Molokai Channel, the Hokulea capsized and left the entire crew hanging onto the port hull. At 10:30 AM the next morning, there was no sign of rescue, so Aikau took a life vest, a rain slicker, a knife and a strobe light and began paddling for help, 12 miles away on the island of Lanai.
Aikau was never seen again, and the crew was rescued later that day by a Coast Guard helicopter.
All of Hawaii mourned the loss of one of Hawaii’s favorite sons. April 1 was declared Eddie Aikau Day by the governor of Hawaii and in 1984, there was a pro contest held in Eddie’s name at Sunset Beach. That contest morphed into the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau, to be held only at Waimea Bay. The format of the event then is pretty much how it is now: Thirty surfers would be invited based on their general performance at Waimea Bay and/or on big waves around the world. The minimum wave size of the event was 20 feet, and that minimum has proven difficult over the years.
The first event was won by Eddie’s brother Clyde, riding one of Eddie’s 10-year-old boards. For the next three years, that 20-foot day did not materialize, and then in 1990, what is still regarded as the best Eddie and the greatest big-wave surfing contest of all time went off in a once-in-a-lifetime 25-foot-plus swell at Waimea. This was awesome, life or death surf and the best in the world went at it as if Eddie were watching from the clouds.
Kerry Terukina survived a horrific, head-first-over-the-falls wipeout, while Richard Schmidt made a sideways down the face with his fin out takeoff on a massive wave. The most gung ho surfer this day was Brock Little, who pulled into a tube on one wave that he just barely didn’t make. Brock also rode the biggest wave of the day, paddling into a black monster that remains one of the biggest waves any surfer has attacked with his bare hands. Brock fell on that wave, and the $55,000 first prize went to Hawaiian surfer Keone Downing, son of Contest Director George Downing.
Since 1990, the Eddie has been held every couple of years. In 1995 Brock Little was leading after the first round, but the event was called off when the swell dropped, and the money was divided equally. Noah Johnson won the Eddie on New Year’s Day 1999. Australian Ross Clarke-Jones won in 2001 and Kelly Slater won in 2002.
In 2005, Bruce Irons was invited to the Eddie with little Waimea experience under his belt, but he proved them all wrong by scoring a total of 370 points out of a possible 400, including one wave he rode all the way to the shorebreak and pulled even to the tube, as even the loudest of his detractors cheered madly.
This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Eddie, going back to that event at Sunset won by Denton Miyamura in 1986. The waiting period for this year starts December 1 and goes to February 28. The oldest surfer is Clyde Aikau at 57, the youngest is Makua Rothman at 22. In between are 21 of the greatest names in big-wave surfing from three generations: Kelly Slater, Brock Little, Michael Ho, Noah Johnson, Shane Dorian.
It is impossible to know whether the ocean will cooperate and produce a swell that is worthy of the Eddie Aikau name. But those invited in Eddie’s name will go as hard as they can, to honor one of the greatest Hawaiian watermen of all time. They all know that Eddie is watching, and they all are ready to risk everything for the man who sacrificed his life so others could live.
The Eddie Details
One coveted invitation, an indicator of one's status in the elite club of big-wave riders, sends surfers all over the
world charging toward their mailboxes to see where they stand. The 2006/2007 invitees for The Quiksilver, Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau, have been officiallyannounced. Scheduled to take place at the hallowed grounds of Waimea Bay, on the North Shore of Oahu, between December 1 and February 28, The Quiksilver, a one-day
event, requires a minimum of 20-foot surf.
Created in 1986 to honor the legendary Hawaiian waterman Eddie Aikau, the event gathers the most skillful and dynamic big-wave surfers from around the world as polled by a collection of influential and experienced watermen. Past winners Clyde Aikau (1986), Keone Downing (1990), Noah Johnson (1999), Ross Clarke-Jones (2001), Kelly Slater (2002) and Bruce Irons (2004). Following is a complete list of invitees and alternates for this year’s event.
Location: Waimea Bay, North Shore, Oahu
Opening Ceremony: Thursday, November 30, 2006. 3pm
Event Holding Period: December 1, 2006 to February 28, 2007. To be held on one day when surf measures at least 20 feet (40 feet faces).
The Big-Wave Riders: 24 of the world’s best big-wave riders, including defending champion Bruce Irons (Hawaii), eight-time world champion-elect Kelly Slater (Florida), and Aikau’s younger brother and former champion Clyde Aikau. US$94,000 in prize money, US$55,000 for first place.
For further information go directly to Quiksilver.com/bigwave
