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Saturday, January 20, 2001

Just dropping in
... to the Eddie

Surfers from around the world
drop what they're doing to fly here
and drop into 20-foot-plus waves

---

By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin

BIG-WAVE surfer Peter Mel considers himself one of the lucky ones.

Lucky to have been a part of the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau competition held at Waimea Bay on Oahu's North Shore last Friday, but lucky as well that the event has been run twice in the five times he's flown over for it from his native Santa Cruz in Northern California.

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With an international field of 24 invitees readying themselves each year to participate in the event commemorating the death of former Waimea Bay lifeguard and big-wave legend Eddie Aikau, the "Eddie" actually has only been run four times since its founding in 1986. That's because the contest's requirements of 20-foot plus and rideable surf at the Bay have proven elusive to satisfy, despite the many large swells that typically bombard the North Shore every winter.

"It's literally dropping everything at a moment's notice when you get the call that the event may go," said Mel, who finished tied for eighth this year. "I usually get the call at 2 or 3 (p.m.) my time and that's really about as late as it can be to catch a flight over by the next morning.

"There's a lot of effort and money involved, but it's all worth it to be a part of something so prestigious."

Local big-wave pioneer George Downing and Hawaii's head Quiksilver representative Glen Moncata serve as contest co-directors.

According to Moncata, he does "most of the running around" for the event.

Downing, who conceived of the event to commemorate Aikau's life and also his courageous rescue attempt of the swamped Hokulea canoe crew in 1978 from which he never returned, monitors the surf and makes the call whether the contest will run.

"It is a difficult event to have," Downing said. "I'm on alert every day for about three months, roughly from Dec. 3 through Feb. 28 (holding period).

"Most of the invitees are here to surf the winter season like a skier goes to Aspen, but we do go out of our way to communicate with everybody."

And even after Downing may send out the word for people to gather at the Bay because a huge swell and favorable conditions are forecasted, it's never an absolute guarantee that D-day will bring both 20-foot plus and rideable surf.

"I like to call it the longest pregnancy in the world," Moncata joked. "We get rolling before the swells are forecasted to arrive, then a lot of times they hit at night and it's too small the next day.

"In the last 13 to 14 years, there maybe has been eight days when we could've run the contest, but four of them were too stormy."

This year's champion, Australian Ross Clarke-Jones, again lived in Hawaii for the winter specifically with the contest in mind. He has done so for more than a decade in becoming the first surfer not from Hawaii to win the event.

But even the born-and-bred locals occasionally have to struggle to make it to the Bay by the morning of competition. Clyde Aikau, Eddie's younger brother and the event's first champion (1987), was stuck in Brazil judging a surf contest early last week.

However, after a call to Downing confirming the swell Clyde Aikau had tracked via computer, he was off on the 20-hour plane trip back home. The oldest competitor in the field at 51, Clyde Aikau surfed his way to 10th place after arriving at midnight on the eve of the event, sleeping for two hours and waking up at four to get ready.

"I was halfway around the world and I was lucky on all my flights," Clyde Aikau said. "I don't think anyone thought the event was really going to go, but I've been real serious about my big-wave surfing this year. I had a great time and our family is really happy that the event went off again."