SPORT A Brief History of Hawaii and Big Wave Surfing

The earliest written record of Hawaiian surfing, or “hee nalu,” as it’s known in the local language, dates all the way back to 1779. Lieutenant James King, who served under the explorer Captain James Cook on his final voyage around the world, observed the islanders riding wooden boards on the waves at Kealakekua Bay. “They seem,” he wrote, “to feel a great pleasure in the motion that this exercise gives.” If only King could see the way this pastime has evolved…

Fast-forward about 150 years. Most scholars of the sport agree that Hawaii is the birthplace of big wave surfing, and that it got started around the mid-20th century. While surfers had previously stuck to some of the island’s western shores, they began exploring other fronts. Ultimately, it was on the north-facing beaches of Hawaii’s islands where serious surfers, like Greg Noll and Phil Edwards, began to take on bigger — and gnarlier — waves. While 15-foot breaks were once considered “big,” within a couple of decades, surfers were seeking out, and riding, bonafide monsters.

For native Hawaiian Kai Lenny, the Gen-Y surfing legend, big-waves pulse through his veins. He’s been surfing in what is essentially his own backyard from an early age and he recognises how fortunate he is to have grown up in Hawaii, or what he calls, “one of the best places on the planet for waves.” To hear more from Kai on the magic of Maui’s shores, have a listen to this episode of The Edge Podcast.

But who paved the way for surfers like Kai? Who took on Hawaii’s epic walls of water, riding them to shore? Let’s dive into big wave surfing history and meet some of its stars.

For surfers, Waimea Bay on Oahu’s northern shore was steeped in taboos and haunting stories. For one, it was at Waimea where Dickie Cross perished in 1943 while trying to paddle back from a vicious swell 3km away at Sunset Beach. But the big, alluringly rideable waves sent out a siren call, and in 1957, Greg Noll finally paddled out and famously surfed a 25-footer. From that moment on, the floodgates of big wave surfing were open.

California-born surfer Phil Edwards is often considered the first professional surfer. He’s also remembered as the first to surf the Banzai pipeline in Hawaii. Nicknamed Pipeline or Pipe, this surf reef break on Oahu’s north shore was tempting with its huge waves and cavernous reefs. In 1961, Phil was caught on film riding several larger-than-life Pipeline waves. The footage was later included in the film Surfing Hollow Days and the Pipe became an epic surfing destination.

Eddie Aikau, Hawaii native, transformed big wave surfing. A skilled lifeguard and surfer, Eddie proved himself as a mythic waterman throughout the 70s, surfing  massive waves at Sunset Beach and Waimea. In 1978 he set sail with the crew of the Hokulea, a recreation of an ancient Polynesian voyaging canoe. A storm hit, and Eddie, true to his lifeguarding instincts, paddled out for help. He was never seen again, but his shadow looms large on today’s big wave surf scene.

Brock Little was a scrawny teen when he showed up at the 1987 Eddie Aikau Invitational at Waimea Bay. He wasn’t even an official contestant, but that didn’t stop him from catching some big ones and convincing the judges to slip him into the competition as an alternate. He placed third and from then on, he became a fixture of the big wave community, training with and mentoring several up-and-coming surfers in what became known as the “Momentum Generation.”

Wednesday, January 28, 1998 on the North Shore of Oahu. The sun was shining and the waves were 40-footers. Haleiwa Harbor was closed, so the action moved a few miles away to a launch spot called Phantoms. Some surfers, like Brock Little, got stuck in traffic and missed the monster tides, but Ken Bradshaw was in the right place at the right time and surfed a wave of epic proportions. Whether it was 70 or 80-feet…that’s lost to time, but Ken became a big wave hero.