Waiting for the Eddie

Eddie Aikau who died on March 17, 1978 was a well-known Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer. He was the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay and saved over 500 people and became famous for surfing the big Hawaiian surf, winning several awards including the 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship.  He died while trying to swim 12 miles (I've also heard 19 miles) to the island of Lanai in order to save his shipmates when their Hawaiian voyaging canoe, the Hokule'a sprang a leak. A phrase that became famous in Hawaii is "Eddie would go."

In his honor, every winter when the surf reaches a minimum of 20 feet (wave face height of 30 feet), the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau (often called the "Eddie") invites 20 or so of the top surfers in the world to participate. The problem is that the conditions are not perfect very often. The other problem is that sometimes it appears perfect and then falls apart. I'm writing this on Wednesday when that very thing happened. The word at 8:30 AM on Wednesday was "Eddie No Go." Apparently, the Eddie has only been a "GO" 8 times in the last 31 years!

Amazingly, the last time the Eddie did go was in 2009 and we were there! I can still hardly believe we actually attempted to see it. The paper said this morning that about 20,000 people would be crowded into Waimea bay to watch. The traffic was horrendous! Some people paid $100 for parking!

Anyway, I thought I'd just reprint that 2009 blog post for fun today and hope that eventually the "Eddie" will go later.

This post is from December 8, 2009.

https://travelerswife.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-quiiiiite-50-or-60-they-forecasted.html

Yes, now you know. We are crazy!

We decided to give the Eddie Aikau Invitational at Waimea Bay another try since they said there was a 90% chance that it would run this time. They even said we might have those 50 foot waves. Did I ever tell you how whenever I would attend a Cubs game, they would lose? If I didn't go they had a chance of winning.

We decided to get up a half hour earlier since the newscasters warned that it was going to be even more crowded than yesterday. We got up at 4:40 and was out the door by about 5:20. The roads didn't seem that crowded....at first.

However, as we got closer to Waimea we found the closest space about 30 miles away. OK... fine. Art checked it out on the map. We were actually a mile and a half away. I could have sworn it was twice as far as yesterday's distant spot.

We found people had camped out in sleeping bags. Some were still sleeping. I'll bet they were warm.

It was pitch dark when we got there and COLD. OK, so it wasn't as cold as Chicago where my daughter says it looks like a swirling snow globe. But still, I was in shorts, and it was about 65 degrees. Yes, I know in Chicago we're in tank tops at 65 degrees but my blood must have thinned out because my finger tips were getting numb.

Soon the sun started to come up over the mountain behind us. You can see the shadow in the water. No, this is not my camera. I've already hinted to Art that I need a better one.

I forgot my glasses again! Half the time I couldn't really tell what I was taking a photo of. If you click on this photo you can see the tiny surfers out there.

It looked beautiful across the bay. I wonder who lives there and what would happen to their house if we really did have those 60 foot waves.

The sun coming up gilded the crests of the waves.

The day was clear so they made the decision to do the surf meet. I didn't even realize the meet had started.


When we got there we found there was no good place to stand because it was too crowded, more so than yesterday. I asked a couple of guys if they could both move just a couple of inches and I could get in and not get hit by the cars on the road side of the guard rail. Art stood in the road until the police told him he couldn't stand there. Happily, the two guys beside me encouraged him to join us. I offered them a Kit Kat bar but they weren't hungry.

One fellow was from Brazil. His name is Al. It was fun talking to him. He was using his wife's camera and didn't know how to work it so Art was able to give him a lot of camera advice. You see. One good turn deserves another.

We took a gazillion photos of the meet. Many of these are Art's shots, too.

Sorry about all these photos. I know my son is looking at every one of them very carefully.

We were surprised to see the photo below in the Honolulu Advertiser the next morning. The photographer who took it must have been sitting very close to us.




By the way, if you enlarge this shot and squint, you'll be able to see the photographer in the water on the left side of the photo. I'll bet I could get better shots if I could swim.

Heading back to our car we saw a long, long line of cars coming to the surf meet. Somebody was very eager to take our mile and a half away parking spot.

During our long trek back to the car, we passed beaches that were closed due to the high surf. They may have been high, but not 50 feet high. Again, I must have jinxed them. On the other hand, they did hold the meet anyway.

You know, the Cubs should be winning by now since I'm no longer living in Chicago.

Postscript: I just heard on the news that the waves today were the best many had ever seen and that conditions for surfing were optimal. Hmmm... I'll bet this happened after we left at 9:30 AM.

POSTSCRIPT: The Eddie has been cancelled. The waves just didn't arrive as expected.