The Eddie

Well its surfing season here in Hawaii. I have never watching surfing in my life or paid any attention to surfing what-so-ever. I had always seen the pictures though of surfers in a huge wave and all you can think is “wow”. Well since we moved to Hawaii I was determined to see it with my own eyes. Well the Vans Triple Crown surfing competition started and I kept on eye on it to see about going. Unfortunately the surf wasn’t very good and when it was decent enough to ride, it always seemed to be a weekday. Well two of the three Triple Crown competitions were over and I had yet to see any surfing myself. I was starting to worry that I would miss it all, but then… News reporters started to predict huge surf, enough to post pone the Triple Crown. Then I heard about the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Surf Competition. It is a competition is in honor of Eddie Aikau who was a surfer and lifeguard in the 60s who went out to rescue someone and never came back. (If you ever see a bumper sticker that says “Eddie would go”, that’s what it is referring to). This competition is only held when the waves are over 20 feet. The last time the Eddie had been held was in 2004. So here I was, with a once in a lifetime opportunity presented to me, so what did I do? I ditched work and went of course! Stephen couldn’t so I had to go by myself. I had to park 3 miles away from the beach where it was held. It was awesome! There were 30-50 ft waves. They were far away so it’s not like it looks in the pictures, its more like watching little stick figures in the distance. All the same, it was awesome. I got to see Greg Long, the winner, score a 100 points on a wave that he rode all the way to the beach. Here are some pictures of what I saw. What I wouldn’t give to have had a telephoto lens!