The North Shore Preview
Nov 29 2006 / North Shore, HawaiiThe Surfing World Makes Its Annual Pilgrimage to the Seven Mile Miracle
If the surfing world has a shared mythology, then the North Shore of Oahu is its Olympus.
Jan and Dean sang about it in the 60s, Shaun Tomson has said it in 70s surf movies, Kelly Slater has echoed it from the 90s into the 21st Century and every surfer knows it: you are not a complete surfer until you have conquered the North Shore of Oahu.
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Form your hand into the “L” sign, point your index finger at about 2:00 and look at it from above. That is the basic shape of the North Shore. The crook of your thumb is Haleiwa and the tip of your forefinger is Kahuku. From Haleiwa up to about your middle knuckle are seven miles of some of the most perfect, challenging waves in the world: inner and outer reefs and beaches facing directly into the north Pacific Ocean, perfectly situated to soak up all that well-traveled Aleutian Juice coming from Kamchatka With Love and convert those open-ocean swells into places like Pipeline, Sunset Beach, Laniakea, Himalayas, Pupukea.
North Shore spots have Hawaiian names going back to myth: Paumalu, Laniakea, Waimea Bay.
Other spots are named for modern surfers like Val Valentine, Dale Velzy and Jock Sutherland.
Some spot names are just cool: Alligators, Marijuanas, Himalayas, Piddlies, Avalanche, Phantoms.
The North Shore is to surfing what the haj to Mecca is to Muslims: You just aren’t the complete Muslim until you have paddled into the pit at Pipeline, been caught inside a West Peak at Sunset, nearly drowned at Himalayas, been spit out of barrel at Pipeline, towed into a monster at Backyards.
The North Shore has always been a place of consequence but here in the 21st Century there is more riding on the North Shore than ever bore. What happens on the North Shore decides the future of competitors and companies, and the media emanating from the contests and the scene drive the multi-billion dollar surf industry. This year for the North Shore season futures will be decided at the Op Pro Hawaii for men and women, the Roxy Pro for women, the Oneill World Cup of Surfing for the men and the Big Daddy of them all, the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters.
Along with that event, the waiting period for the North Shore Tow-In Surfing Championships begins December 15, 2006 while the waiting period for the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau begins December 1. Whether towing or paddling, both these events promise to be sensational if the ocean rears up and really goes berserk.
Along with all of those contests there will be parties formal and informal, opening ceremonies for the Eddie and all the ASP events, dramas, fights, victories, disasters and maybe even serious injuries and deaths. The North Shore of Oahu in December is where the world’s best surfers and the world’s most challenging waves meet in swift collision, and it is one of the greatest shows on earth.
The North Shore is a relatively recent institution in surfing. Most of the waves on the North Shore were too complicated for the short, finless alaia and longer olos of the ancient Hawaiians and it wasn’t until haole inventions like Tom Blake’s skeg and the Hot Curl boards of John Kelly, Wally Froiseth and later George Downing made it possible for surfers to go beyond the inner reefs of Haleiwa and Sunset Beach and ride those challenging waves on the outer reefs. This all started to happen in the late 1930s as surfers began venturing to Haleiwa and Sunset Beach. In 1943, a young Hawaiian resident named Dickie Cross drowned on a big day when he got caught outside at Sunset Beach and tried to paddle down the coast to Waimea Bay. Everyone in Hawaii knew Dickie Cross and the tragedy of this talented young watermen dying a few days before Christmas put a tabu on the North Shore and especially on Waimea Bay. Out of the 40s and into the 50s, the most popular big wave spot was Makaha, which in those days you got to by driving up along your thumb, around the top and down the west side of Oahu. Makaha was where big wave surfing and the big wave gun were developed, As surfboards became more sophisticated – and the big-wave guns of Makaha were Ferraris compared to what had come before – surfers like George Downing, Wally Froiseth, Walter Hoffman and Henry Preece began exploring deeper into places like Haleiwa, Laniakea and Sunset Beach. Through the 40s into the 50s, the North Shore was rural – sparsely populated, few jobs, few places to live. The wild side of Oahu.
In 1957, Greg Noll lead his band of Merry Men into a taboo-breaking surf session at Waimea Bay: “We paddled out there thinking that something was going to eat us or a huge vortex would open up and there went the haole for the season,” Greg Noll said in Riding Giants. “But we caught a couple of waves and didn’t die and it was okay. Just a bitchin day of surfing with some friends.”
That session at Waimea Bay opened what many consider the modern era of North Shore surfing. Five years later, Jan and Dean were singing: “In Hawaii there’s a place called Why-uh-meya Bay, where the best surfers in the world come to play.” The North Shore had already become an institution, a winter ritual for surfers who loved a challenge, the media who loved to cover the ritual and a growing group of watchers and hangers on.
The first Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championships was held in 1965. The contest invited 24 of the world’s best surfers to compete at Sunset Beach, and the event was nicely packaged for CBS Television and broadcast across the United States. The Duke was regarded as the premiere surfing event in the world well into the 1970s and the list of winners is a Who’s Who of the best for the time: Jeff Hakman, Ricky Grigg, Jock Sutherland, Mike Doyle, Joey Cabell, James Jones.
The first Pipeline Masters was held in 1971 and by 1976, there was a serious movement
to organize and legitimize professional surfing. The Hawaiian events were then, as they are now, the grand finale to an international tour that included California, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and other locations, with the champion being decided at the end of the year winter events at Sunset Beach, Haleiwa, Pipeline and sometimes Waimea Bay.
By 1983, the Association of Surfing Professionals was the governing body of surfing, and they established the Triple Crown of Surfing, which has become the second most honored title in pro surfing, after World Champion. The Triple Crown is bestowed to the surfer who scores the most points in the three Hawaiian events, which are generally held at Haleiwa, Sunset and Pipeline. From the 80s into the 90s the Triple Crown was dominated by Hawaiian surfers like Michael and Derek Ho and Sunny Garcia, but other greats like Australians Gary Elkerton and Tom Carroll have won the crown.
For the winter of 2006/2007, the World Title is off the table, but there is still a lot of fame and glory and money up for grabs on the North Shore. Kelly Slater won the 2006 World Title in Spain, but there are still a dozen surfers who will be fighting for every ratings point they can get to either maintain their position in the coveted Top 45, or knock out an established surfer and make the surfing version of the Big Leagues.
Already, Andy Irons has won the Op Pro Hawaii, setting up a serious defense for the crown he won in 2005. The next event will be at Sunset Beach and then the Big Daddy of them all, the Rip Curl Pipeline Masters, will have a waiting period of two weeks, ending just before Christmas. Lat34 will be there filling you in on all of the details. Wish you could come.
- Ben Marcus
