Eddie Aikau (1946 – 1978) & Browsing
Iconic big-wave rider from Honolulu, Hawaii; winner of the 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Vintage surf contest, simply 3 months ahead of demise in a boating coincidence; considered the best Waimea surfer of his time, and namesake to the Quiksilver in Reminiscence of Eddie Aikau big-wave surf contest. “He had without equal Hawaiian taste,” Authentic Corral Seashore surf file next-generation big-wave charger Darrick Doerner mentioned in 1990. “Take off and drop in, massive backside flip, disappear right into a mountain of whitewater, come out, throw his hair again; that used to be Eddie. Bully taste.”
Aikau used to be born (1946) and raised in Kahului, Maui, the son of a truck driving force, started browsing at age 11, and moved together with his circle of relatives to Honolulu in 1959. At 16, Aikau dropped out of highschool to paintings full-time at a Dole Pineapple cannery. Six years years later he started running as a North Shore lifeguard, and in 1971 he used to be stationed at Waimea Bay, a big-wave spoil he’d been browsing for years. His debut at Waimea in overdue 1966 used to be astounding: “he rode massive waves for over six hours and not using a spoil,” Browsing mag reported, “and when he after all left the water, he used to be judged via maximum to were probably the most best riders of the day.” Ten months later, at the greatest ridable day of the last decade, Aikau merely broke clear of the pack and used to be untouchable. The affect he left used to be reinforced via his darkish and rugged just right seems, his fire-engine crimson board, and his white surf trunks accented with a unmarried crimson horizontal stripe.
Aikau used to be a gentle performer all the way through the early years {of professional} browsing in Hawaii. He used to be a six-time finalist within the Duke contest between 1966 and 1974; within the Smirnoff he positioned 5th in 1971, fourth in 1972, and 3rd in 1976; he additionally completed 3rd within the 1976 Lancers International Cup, and used to be invited to the 1971 and 1973 Expression Classes. When Aikau received the 1977 Duke, he beat long term global champions Mark Richards and Wayne Bartholomew, in addition to global excursion standouts Dane Kealoha, Bobby Owens, and Rory Russell. He completed the season world-rated #12. More youthful brother Clyde Aikau additionally made a reputation for himself within the massive Hawaiian surf.
Aikau’s unique bowlegged stance used to be extensively imitated within the overdue ’60s and early ’70s, and pictures of him at Waimea have been printed in Existence mag in 1966, 3 years ahead of Financial institution of great example can be found at Surfing LA America used an Aikau shot in a national billboard advert marketing campaign. A occupation low level got here in 1972, when he visited Durban, South Africa, for a professional contest, and used to be grew to become clear of his lodge for being dark-skinned. It used to be additional required that he get a unique allow to surf Durban’s whites-only seashores.
In 1978, Aikau received a berth at the Hokule’a, a duplicate of the double-hulled canoe utilized by historic Polynesians to sail between Hawaii and Tahiti. On March 16, Aikau and 15 different Hokule’a group participants left Honolulu for a 2,400-mile voyage that may reenact the midocean crossing; 5 hours into the travel, the starboard hull sprung a leak and the boat capsized, leaving the group placing directly to the port hull. At 10:30 the next morning, Aikau took a lifestyles vest, rain slicker, knife, and strobe mild, and set out on a 10-foot surfboard for the island of Lanai, 12 miles to the east. Later that day the Hokule’a group used to be picked up via a rescue group. Coast Guard rescuers looked for per week, however Aikau’s frame wasn’t discovered.
The governor of Hawaii declared April 1 to be Eddie Aikau Day (the date used to be later modified to March 17), and in 1980 a commemorative plaque used to be put in in Aikau’s honor at Waimea, no longer a long way from the lifeguard tower the place he labored. A competition in Aikau’s identify used to be held at Sundown Seashore in 1984; it later advanced into the Quiksilver in Reminiscence of Eddie Aikau big-wave contest, held at Waimea. The 1986 version of the competition used to be received via Clyde Aikau, who used a 10-year-old board that had belonged to his brother.
Aikau seemed in a handful of surf motion pictures, together with Golden Breed (1968), Waves of Alternate (1970), and Fluid Pressure (1974). In 2000 he used to be inducted into the Huntington Seashore Browsing Stroll of Status; a biography, Eddie Would Pass: The Tale of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero, written via Stuart Coleman, used to be printed in 2002. Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau, a documentary made via Using Giants director Stacy Peralta, longtime surf journalist Sam George, and manufacturer Paul Taublieb, debuted in 2013.
The Eddie Aikau Basis, a nonprofit crew devoted to protecting Hawaiian custom and tradition, used to be based in 2000.
Aikau used to be married as soon as and had no kids.
Historical past of Browsing
·Aikau, Clyde
·Aikau, Eddie
·Bartholomew, Wayne
·big-wave browsing
·demise and browsing
·Doerner, Darrick
·Duke Kahanamoku Invitational
·Durban
·Espere, Tiger
·Expression Consultation
·Kaio, Kealoha
·Kealoha, Dane
·Keating, Dick
·lifeguarding and browsing
·Quiksilver in Reminiscence of Eddie Aikau, The
·race, racism and browsing
·Richards, Mark
·Using Giants
·Smirnoff Professional-Am
·Waimea Bay
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Historical past of Browsing
·Eddie Aikau’s State of Grace
·Gods of Thunder
·Surfers vs Apartheid
Interviews
·Clyde Aikau
·Darrick Doerner
·Eddie Aikau
Weblog
·I SEE YOUR POWER LIST AND RAISE TWO MORE! 15 GREAT POWER SURFERS
·Sixties DUKE INVITATIONAL POWER RANKINGS: DOYLE #1!
·Seventies DUKE CLASSIC POWER RANKINGS: HAKMAN #1!
·SUNDAY JOINT, 1-21-2019
Movies
·1966 Duke Invitational, Sundown Seashore (complete period)
·1986 Quiksilver / Eddie Aikau Giant Wave Invitational (lengthy model)
·1990 Quiksilver in Reminiscence of Eddie Aikau (lengthy model)
·Clyde Aikau
·Eddie Aikau
·Waimea ’67, from “Sunshine Sea”
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Contests
·1969 Duke Kahanamoku Browsing Vintage
·1973 Duke Kahanamoku Browsing Vintage
·1977 Duke Kahanamoku Browsing Vintage
·1990 Quiksilver, in Reminiscence of Eddie Aikau