Last week I wrote this column with one eye on the Mac screen and the other on the rather home-made live streaming of the Eddie Aikau Memorial Invitational from Waimea Bay, possibly the most frightening and fabulous big wave event I’ve witnessed, despite the frequent glitches.
But the fact that chaos ruled the day at The Bay, the commentators had no communication with the judging tower and not even a heat sheet, and at times just had to guess who was behind a wall of spray as a surfer plunged down and down a massive Waimea wall, perhaps all of that made a real point of difference between the silky smooth but same-same presentation of a WSL world tour event.
The first Eddie since 2016, and the first one produced without the rivers of gold chucked at it by Quiksilver, back when it was a real surf company, was definitely old school but also real school, not to mention pretty damn cool.
There were some great and heart-warming side stories to come out of the 2023 Eddie once the spray had settled, none better than the one about winner Luke Sheppardson appearing on the podium to collect his trophy and cheque wearing his red and yellow lifeguard uniform.
Why?
Because he was on active duty that day, and his boss had given him an hour off to surf each of his two heats. So after surfing the biggest waves ever ridden in competition at Waimea, if a spectator had been washed out by a rogue set, Luke would have had to find an extra bit of energy and do his thing.
Last week I mentioned that the veterans excelled, with Michael Ho, the grandfather of the event at 65, pulling in to some monsters without blinking, and our own Ross Clarke Jones, 56, surfing fearlessly and hamming it up on some absolute bombs.
But they weren’t the only ones.
Former WSL Big Wave Tour commissioner and Mavericks charger Pete Mel, 53, took the drop on some howlers, and even finished a couple, notably holding hands with Shane Dorian, 50, as they finished a heat closer.
Then, of course, there was the GOAT, 11-times world champ Kelly Slater, 51 next week, who won the Eddie in 2002 and was listed to compete in this one, but, as he told the TV cameras, “I just woke up this morning and wasn’t feeling it.”
At this stage of his career Kelly doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone, and he may have been thinking about the importance of his title defence at the Pipe Pro world tour event this week, but maestro that he is, what he did with his invitation had grown men wiping a tear away.
He gave it to Chris Owens, a 60-ish North Shore lifeguard, waterman and inter-island paddling champion and frequent charger on the biggest days at The Bay who had never received an invitation to compete.
Earlier in January, Chris had hit the headlines when he was hospitalised after a surfer who should never have even thought of paddling out, dropped in on him and sent a loose gun careening at his head.
Chris’s big brother Bobby was one of the best surfers and nicest guys on the fledgling IPS World Tour in the 1970s. I wrote a few articles about him and we became friends – how could you not? – and I kept up with him over the decades as he went through health issues and ran surf schools at Waikiki and Turtle Bay.
I met Chris once or twice back in the day too, before he scored the cover of Surfer Magazine with a Peter Crawford shot of him at Backdoor. That great shot, flipped into a left, later became a Jan and Dean compilation album cover, giving Chris another 15 minutes of fame.
But I bet it wasn’t as good as giving Kelly Slater a thank you hug and paddling out at The Bay and showing the stuff you’re made of on the day of all days.
Then there were the girls – six of them and all prepared to paddle over the ledge and take on the bottomless pit.
For me the pick was Kauai’s DJ Keala Kennelly, whose heart is bigger than her body. I’ve followed Keala’s career since we looked after her as a teenager in France on the qualifying tour, and if you follow Keala you’ve often got your heart in your mouth.
But this was beyond hero stuff.
She made a few good ones and took a few on the head, as the sequence of heli-shots by the legendary snapper Mike Coots illustrates.
Keala emerged unscathed but says she’s done with the Eddie. We’ll see.
