Eddie Would Go!

Another great moment in surfing history with the 2009 Eddie Aikau Big Wave surfing contest.  This contest is held in memory of Eddie Aikau who was a well known surfer and lifeguard in Hawaii back in the 70s.  He saved many lives at Waimea Bay and was a legend in himself.  He lives on in surfing history not only because of his great surfing skills, but because of his bravery in attempting to rescue his fellow voyagers from a capsized canoe with only his surfboard.  Eddie was selected to be part of a crew that would sail the traditional ancient Polynesian route from Hawaii to the Tahitian islands in March of 1978 using the stars as their only guide.  It was a great privilege, but because of stormy weather their canoe developed a leak in one of its hulls and capsized. Eddie took his surfboard and attempted to paddle to Lana'i  19 miles away for help, but was never found again.  The crew was later rescued by the coastguard.

In his memory, the Eddie Aikau was made and only runs if waves are big and by big I mean in the 30 feet + range, and it is not often we get these types of waves that are clean and rideable.  Today waves were in the 40-50 feet!!  The contest has ran only 9 times since it's start in 1984 with the most recent in 2004, that is until today. Crowds came out in mass between 20,000-25,000 to watch the 28 invited contestants. 

Big winner today, California's Greg Long with the perfect ride and perfect score of 10!

credit: Cestari/ASP 

 

1, Greg Long (Calif.) 323 points, $55,000
2, Kelly Slater (USA) 313, $10,000
3, Sunny Garcia (Hawaii) 292, $5,000
4, Bruce Irons (Hawaii), 275
5, Ramon Navarro (Chile), 267

Official website of the contest and videos of the rides for today:
http://live.quiksilver.com/2009/bigwave/videos.php?btn_videos=_over

Local News
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/Long_wins_Aikau_contest.html

Waves the day before the contest at Waimea Bay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNzks5M-sJ4

Aloha and happy surfing!