Woweee! Are we having fun yet?

Surfer gets his kicks challenging the infamous Waimea shore break and coming back out in one piece

By Greg Ambrose
Star-Bulletin

This is Waimea shore break, where 20-foot waves that break on the more famous point wrap into the bay to explode on shallow sandbars as hellish 12-foot tubes.

Only a few extreme bodyboarders challenge it, kicking their sponge-

soft boards over the ledge for a thrilling plunge into thin air and a brief tube ride.

And a brutal beating.

Surfers and spectators consider the bodyboarders crazy, and the bodyboarders are equally convinced Clark Little is insane.

Little, 27 and old enough to know better, is the only board surfer who rides the shore break.

He does it because, well, it's fun.

He doesn't just take off on impossible waves and get snuffed. He gets tubed, and makes the wave, at times moving so fast he gets tubed twice on the same wave.

It's the only place where he can get waves to himself.

"I hate crowds, and out there nobody bothers me."

"There are times when the lifeguards close the beach, but they allow me to go out because they know I have the capability and won't get hurt."

Waimea Bay lifeguard Lt. Pat Kelly isn't pleased that Little is out there apparently risking his life in full view of the lifeguard tower.

But "the other guards have encouraged me to do it and enjoy watching me pull into the tube," Little said.

And his parents?

They've seen it all before. Little's older brother, Brock, is famous for his reckless assaults on huge waves at Waimea and Hawaii's outer reefs, as well as big-wave spots worldwide.

"They're so used to Brock surfing 30-foot waves outside Waimea they're not worried about me surfing the shore break. They have seen Brock get enough stitches in his time."

Little isn't as deranged as he seems. He checked out the shore break for years, first bodysurfing and then bodyboarding the pounding waves. Two years ago he said to himself, "You know, it looks like I'll be able to surf it."

It's unlikely that crowds will force him away from his shore-break haven.

"A couple guys tried to come out; one broke his rib when he wiped out. To tell you the truth, I like to get pounded - bodysurfing, bodyboarding and surfing."