RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Raina Grigg, co-curator of the exhibit "Nalu: Forty Years of Big Wave Boards," mounted a longboard to a rack in the exhibit space earlier this month.

Big boards

The "Nalu" exhibit shows the vehicles
that rode Hawaii's big waves

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By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

BIg-wave surfboards -- known generally as guns and sometimes as elephant guns and rhino chasers -- are highly specialized designs with a single purpose: provide the rider the greatest chance to survive immense walls of water traveling upward of 40 mph.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM A balsa longboard is detailed with inlaid pin stripes of darker wood. The 10-foot-4-inch board was made this year by Tom Nellis.

The boards must allow the surfer a solid surface for paddling, ability to hold vertical drop-ins, slingshot bottom turns and standup barrels.

And what's considered a big wave? Fifteen feet Hawaii scale, measured by the back of the wave, vs. a 30-foot face any other place.

The paddle-in boards -- as opposed to boards where surfers are towed by a Jet-ski into the swell -- currently range in size from 8 to 12 feet in length, and in Hawaii are designed primarily for Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay, Makaha and Outside Pipeline.

Hawaii is synonymous in the world of surfing with big-wave riding. Nowhere has the art and technology of big-wave surfboard design been tested and tried in more extreme, deadly conditions.

But these specialized machines are more than functional. They are also part of Hawaii's culture, with every "gun" connected to at least one epic moment in the surfer's life.

The "Nalu: 40 Years of Big Wave Boards" exhibit at 1132 Bishop St. through Sept. 6 is a time-machine journey back through the roots of Hawaii's big-wave riding, a walk down memory lane of eras, each with its own distinct surfboard design characteristic.

"The exhibit is to highlight the shapers who rarely get noticed in the big-wave picture," says artist Raina Grigg, who organized the exhibit. "Shapers are artists."

The lobby gallery features more than 50 boards on loan from local collectors, original owners and organizers including Kapiolani Community College art professor David Behlke, Randy Rarick and Mark Fragale. The boards, crafted from redwood-balsa, balsa and fiberglass, date back to 1947. Their value on the collectibles market ranges from $100 to $15,000 apiece.

But some of the least expensive boards have the most epic stories.

Take Peter Cole's 11-foot-6-inch bright-yellow gun designed by Californian Mike Eaton. In the early 1980s, Cole rode arguably the largest photographed wave ever at Waimea Bay, barely making it to the bottom before being crushed and having the board snapped in half.

The board was repaired, but no attempt was made to hide the historic fault line. Touch the 4-inch-thick board, and you get an idea of how strong the wave must have been.

There are a number of restored balsa boards from the '50s by Mike Diffenderfer, who recently died here, and Pat Curran's "chambered" balsa board valued at up to $10,000, Rarick said. Chambered boards have wood cores drilled out to make them lighter.

There's also surfer-environmentalist John Kelly's odd-looking '50s "Hydro" gun with its 5-inch tail block and enormous fin shaped at the old Inter-Island Surf Shop in Kakaako.

"The board never worked well, but it shows how shapers experimented to get the shape needed to ride big waves," Rarick said.

'Nalu: 40 Years of Big Wave Boards' On view: 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 6 Place: 1132 Bishop St. Admission: Free Call: 599-5009

Of particular interest to collectors is a Greg Noll Surfboards "George Downing Model."

"A dozen of the boards got made without Downing's knowledge before he found out and raised hell with Greg," Rarick said. "George wanted to open his own shop with his own boards."

The board, with its distinctive decal, sold for $4,000 at a surfboard memorabilia auction held here last summer.

Other notable boards:

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM A longboard by Downing and Forysth, circa 1947, is part of the "Big Wave Boards" exhibit.

>> Surfboards Hawaii's "Buzzy Trent Model" shaped by Dick Brewer: Only three are known to exist. The board sold for about $250 when new, which was considered an outrageous price in the early '60s. Today's value is $10,000.

>> Surfboard Hawaii's 1962 solid balsa board, at 11 feet, 4 inches with a pin tail. Shaper unknown. Recently sold for $15,000.

>> Pat Rawson-shaped Local Motion 12-foot bright-yellow modern gun for Marvin Foster, who rode it in the 1989 Eddie Aikau Invitational.

>> Phil Edwards "D" series -- made toward the end of Edwards' shaping days in Hawaii, this is an 8-foot-6-inch 1967 gun.

>> Restaurateur Joey Cabell rode his 10-foot spear-shape board in 20-foot surf at Hanalei Bay in 1969. Particularly startling is its narrow 17.5-inch width.

>> Mike Hynson's 10-foot-6-inch, three-stringer gun rode the 1965 Duke Invitational at Sunset Beach. Clearly visible is the rail ding that occurred in the contest. Owner Fragale has a photo that shows the moment of impact.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM "Nalu: Forty Years of Big Wave Boards" showcases boards sometimes called "elephant guns" and "rhino chasers," designed for riding the fiercest of Hawaii's waves.

>> Ken Bradshaw's 7-foot-6-inch tow-in board on which he rode what is believed to be the largest wave ever photographed, in excess of 60 feet, at Outside Log Cabins in 1998.

Of particular note is the Wally Froiseth-George Downing-shaped balsa-redwood board, circa 1957, and a 1951 balsa board shaped and still owned by Haleiwa resident Allen Chang. The board, one of three he shaped, has a comical shark drawing on the deck.

Rarick discovered one of his original boards while helping organize the show. When collector Roland Tang dropped off the 10-foot-6-inch Dewey Weber shape, Rarick knew instantly that it was the one on which he rode his first Waimea Bay wave in 1966.

"I had given it to a friend after that winter, and that was it," he said, stroking the board's rails. "Seeing it and feeling it is like going back in time."

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