Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25037
PO I NTS ON TH E MAR by kath leen gasperin i PHOTOG RAPHY: FRED FOTO WEDNESDAY DEEP IN THE HEART OF EL NINO, A STORM GAVE BIRTH TO A SWELL THAT POUNDED THE NORTH SHORE OF O'AHU. FOR SURFERS, IT WAS THE ULTIMATE WAVE. BUOY ON 28 JANUARY 1998, A 40-FOOT REPORTS THE DAY BEFORE PREDICTED HUGE SURF, WHICH BROUGHT ON THE INFAMOUS EDDIE AIKAU COMPETITION-A CONTEST THAT'S HELD ONLY WHEN 20-FOOT SURF RAGES. IT'S INTENDED FOR SURFING'S ELITE IN HONOR OF AIKAU, THE ULTIMATE BIG-WAVE RIDER WHO WAS LOST AT SEA IN 1978 DURING A HEROIC RESCUE ATTEMPT. Ironically, the contest was called off by North Shore harbor patrol because the surf was too huge. "We watched for an hour and a half at Waimea," reports Jon Long, director of the IMAX movie Extreme, who was there with his crew to capture the competition on film. "There were 35-foot close-out sets from shore to shore-it was a total death cauldron." Traditional surfing-where one paddles into the wave-was out of the question. The speed of 3D-foot-plus walls of water are too fast to catch for even the most powerful kahuna. But like any sport where man's desire to overcome nature prompts technological advancement, surfing has figured out a way to ride the beast of a big wave: tow-in surfing. Pioneered four years ago by watermen Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Darrick Doerner and Buzzy Kerbox, this close-knit posse of big-wave surfers use wave runners and footstrap-equipped surfboards to ride EI Nino-induced swells. With a wave runner, surfers are whipped into heavy surf zones using the speed generated by centrifugal force. Today, tow-in surfing, although more popular, is mastered only by the highest echelon of surfers and is still consid ered a newbie sport. "It takes a lot of time paddling and surfing the outer reefs to appreci ate wanting to surf huge swells," says 45-year-old Ken Bradshaw, a North Shore master and former pro surfer. "The difference between regular