• PHOTO GALLERY: ‘Eddie’ is a no-go

Thousands of spectators gathered at Waimea Bay early Wednesday for “The Eddie,” but the monster waves that were expected didn’t arrive on time — prompting organizers to cancel the competition’s highly anticipated run.

The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau could still go before the Feb. 29 holding deadline, however, if storms bring the steady sets of giant waves that organizers say they’ll need to make the big-surf contest happen for the first time since 2009.

“We had high hopes that we’d be running today, but unfortunately this storm (that generates the swell) kind of blew itself up over the north of us and is heading more toward California. So many forecasters said this is your day, but Mother Nature isn’t always kind to everybody,” contest director Glen Moncata said.

Throngs of people, many of them bundled in hooded sweatshirts, jackets and blankets, remained at Waimea after the cancellation. Some said they planned to catch up on sleep there after having stayed up all night or woken up in the early morning to make sure they saw the event.

“The hype was pretty cool, seeing everybody all excited last night. It’s a bummer but not the end of the world, is it?” said a groggy Josh Huerta, as the 25-year-old Kailua resident reclined in a sleeping bag Wednesday morning at Waimea. He said he had arrived on the North Shore after 11 p.m. Tuesday night.

“Why all these people are here is they love to see big waves being ridden by great surfers. If this was to happen next week, they’d all be back here,” Moncata added. “There’s another storm out there that’s brewing right now that could bring in waves toward the end of next week.”

Eddie organizers had announced Monday that the competition would go on after forecasts predicted consistent surf of about 40 feet (20-foot Hawaiian-style measurements) landing at Waimea Bay by early Wednesday.

But when waves hit buoys north of the islands Wednesday, the timing of the swell had changed and it soon became clear that the waves wouldn’t meet contest standards until much later in the day — too late to hold the event.

The surfers “are all baffled as much as I am,” Moncata said Wednesday.

The Eddie has run just eight times in its 31-year history, according to the event’s official website, because the conditions must be exactly right. “Any other surf contest in the world would just run. This is not your average surf contest. There’s nothing else like it,” said professional surfer Dave Wassel, who had been scheduled to surf in the competition’s second heat. (Some 28 surfers and five alternates were invited by organizers to attend.)

Jodi Wilmott, a World Surf League spokeswoman, said contest organizers considered splitting the event and holding half of it this afternoon and finishing this morning.

But the surf wasn’t expected to peak at the right heights until about 2 p.m., which didn’t leave enough time since the contest permit expired at 4:30 p.m. and today’s surf wasn’t expected to remain at peak levels with enough time to finish the contest.

The National Weather Service said the buoy readings showed the swell arriving about 6 to 8 hours behind wave- model predictions.

Ocean Safety officials reported that as wave heights climbed Wednesday afternoon, there were 50 rescues at Waimea Bay; another nine elsewhere on the North Shore; and 19 on west-facing shores.

Rather than feeling disappointed, Wassel said he was “a little relieved” when organizers canceled the Wednesday run. He’s slated to surf at another renowned big-wave surf site, Northern California’s Mavericks, on Friday. Wassel said it would have been “almost impossible” to get rest between surfing those two monster sites.

Eddie Aikau, the competition’s namesake, was a famed big-wave surfing pioneer and Waimea’s first lifeguard. He’s credited with saving hundreds of lives there with his younger brother, Clyde. Eddie Aikau lost his life in 1978 when the Polynesian voyaging replica vessel Hokule‘a capsized in heavy seas off Molokai. Aikau paddled toward the island on a surfboard for help and was never seen again. The surf contest bearing his name launched in the mid-1980s.

“It’s just amazing the amount of respect the people of Hawaii have for Eddie. To see all the people here to support Eddie is just tremendous and very humbling for us,” Clyde Aikau said Wednesday. “The waves just didn’t happen today and that’s just the way it goes. … Hopefully we’ll have it in the next two weeks.”

A previous winner of the contest, Clyde Aikau had been scheduled to compete in the third heat Wednesday. “The hard part is to sustain that high intensity of energy and mind and body” while waiting for the competition to go. Aikau said he’s been training for the past six months. “This is going to be my last Eddie, so Uncle Clyde is ready to go.”

Wahiawa resident Erin Grajales headed out to Waimea Bay at 3:30 a.m. and said she was happy to have made the trip. Despite the cancellation “it’s still a historic event,” Grajales said. “Even just the fact that there were this many people on the beach today, and to be a part of everyone who pilgrimaged out here just in honor of Eddie Aikau, I think it’s pretty … exciting just to be part of that.”