Funding likely to determine whether the Eddie will still go

Clyde Aikau bristles at accusations that his family is money-hungry. He insists it’s not about money.

Maybe the problems leading to cancellation of what used to be called “The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau,” among other names, aren’t about greed. But they are a lot about money.

This could be just a trial separation of the Aikau family from the sponsor that has backed the event from the beginning, back in the 1980s. Or maybe it is a signal that the golden age when companies that sell surf wear can afford to sponsor contests is coming to an end.

Regardless, Aikau promises a return of the event named for his brother, the ace lifeguard and big-wave surfing champion who disappeared in 1978 while swimming for shore, trying to help his crewmates of the capsized Hokule‘a.

“The Eddie” is nearly as beloved as Eddie Aikau the man himself was, and is. Other than a few folks annoyed by the traffic jams it produces on the North Shore, no one wants to see this event gone permanently.

But the question remains: Who will pay for it?

“People don’t realize how much it costs to put on a surfing event,” said Randy Rarick, who ran the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing for more than 30 years. “I think there’s been a reality check that this is an expensive endeavor.”

Rarick’s estimate is around $750,000, with the biggest expenses being TV/internet coverage, rights fees and prize money. On the revenue side, you can’t sell tickets for a surf meet — and, in the case of the Eddie, you don’t even know if the contest will be held; a false start like the one last year cost around $200,000, Rarick said.

“It’s a lot for a one-day event. The costs have gotten expensive. That’s the reality,” he added.

Eddie’s younger brother is a legend himself now, especially after Clyde braved the 25-foot waves in 2016 at age 66; he emerged from the water in 21st place after incurring several injuries, including a torn rotator cuff on his first ride.

It was as impressive and emotional a performance as when Clyde won the first Eddie held at Waimea Bay, where he and his brother were both lifeguards and the unofficial kings of the beach.

Nearly two years later, Clyde’s body is now healed. But the Eddie is undoubtedly broken: After negotiations between lawyers for Quiksilver and the Aikaus hit a wall, Clyde said he’d try to make a go of it. But in November he announced there would be no contest this year.

The cynic might laugh and say, “So what?” Most years since its inception there has been no contest anyway. For the Eddie to be held, waves consistently at 20 feet or higher must be projected at some point during a 90-day holding period from December to February.

Yes, the Eddie is about competition and death-defying athleticism, and the whims of nature. But it is even more about celebrating the selfless spirit of a man whose skill on the monster waves of Waimea Bay was just a part of what he meant — and still means — to Hawaii and Hawaiians.

Unfortunately, it is also about money.

And Clyde Aikau vows that any funds he can raise will not go into his own pocket.

“Not one penny goes to me and my family,” he said. “Everything will go to the Eddie.”

THE LEGACY

Don Lynch, 18, of Schofield Barracks, was in trouble at Waimea Bay at about 2 p.m. Firemen were called but by the time they arrived, lifeguard Eddie Aikau already had pushed Lynch ashore.

— Honolulu Advertiser, Dec. 25, 1972

Clyde talks about how sometimes Eddie would pull the same guy out of the water more than once, on the same day. Patrick Lorenzo, a regular at Waimea Bay since the 1970s, remembers seeing it.

“He’d wait for a good wave, and throw ’em back in (to the beach),” Lorenzo said. “And a lot of times, these guys think they’re invincible, and they’d go right back in.”

Eddie would watch for novices getting in trouble. No one ever drowned on his watch, or Clyde’s. When the waves got really big, 20 feet, then it was Eddie’s turn to take a break from work and surf.

“When I’d go surfing with Eddie, I’d make my goal to take off behind Eddie to be able to say I did what he did,” said former pro surfer and Hawaii state senator Fred Hemmings. “But I couldn’t. That was his place.”

The Hokule‘a was a natural home for him, too. Who better to serve on the crew of a traditional Hawaiian voyaging vessel than arguably the greatest Hawaiian waterman since Duke Kahanamoku?

Since no trace of him was found after he left the overturned boat to try to swim about 12 miles to land and help, there are those who believe Eddie Aikau survived 40 years ago.

But what we’d like to believe often goes against all plausibility — it’s possible, but very unlikely — like when Clyde Aikau talks about running a surf meet with coconuts and sardines for prizes and payment.

THE CURRENT

Being invited to the Eddie, and winning, is more about prestige than potential prize money. Other big-wave events are also popular, but the Eddie remains to surfing what the Masters is to golf.

“There’s so much power and so much energy behind it,” said world champion John John Florence, the contest’s last winner, in 2016. “Along with the world title, it’s one of my biggest thrills in surfing. Even though I grew up right here I only saw it a few times, guys like Bruce (Irons) and Greg Long winning, that’s been awesome. Winning it was incredible. I just went out there hoping I could stand up on a couple of waves.”

Florence is the newest on a list of nine winners, with no repeats. If things don’t change, he could be the last.

Glen Moncata of Kailua has been with Quiksilver from the beginning of its association with the Aikaus in the mid-1980s. He said the company is still open to sponsoring the contest next year.

“We couldn’t do it this year because we ran out of time, we couldn’t make product,” said Moncata, the company’s vice president for sales in Hawaii. “That’s one way we supported the contest. What we negotiated from last year, it looked like everything was set. Attorneys came in with some things, and it was too late. Then they figured out it wasn’t as easy as they thought to put it on and now have to hold off until next year. That saddens me.”

Aikau declined to divulge what “a couple of deal-breaker” issues are. Moncata said he doesn’t know what those issues would be.

“The breakdown had nothing to do with money issues,” Aikau said.

But several sources who don’t want to be identified said Aikau got bad advice and asked Quiksilver for a higher rights fee.

“When the family declined to surrender control of the Eddie for five years on the terms Quiksilver was demanding, Quiksilver terminated negotiations,” the Aikau family stated in early October.

Moncata said: “When the attorneys got involved, except for our attorney and their attorney and our CEO, nobody knows (what caused the rift).”

There are stage-whispered control issues: control over how many local surfers are invited, control over how big the waves need to be in order to deem the contest a “go.” Also, there is the aspect of coordinating with the World Surf League.

Whether the contest goes or not doesn’t seem to hurt attendance; many who go see the day at the beach with the crowd as the sundae, and if the contest goes that’s the cherry on top. It certainly adds mystique to a sports event if it will be held only when conditions are perfect.

“It was one of the cleverest surfing marketing promotions,” Hemmings said. “Quiksilver would announce the contest, get a lot of publicity, then get this pseudo surf guru year in and year out say the surf is not big enough. It’s just not true. But you make money, and you make it even more mysterious. A very clever promotion from that aspect.”

Moncata and others said that simply isn’t true, and Quiksilver still had to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars even when the meet was not held.

THE FUTURE

After Florence’s win in 2016, Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO George Szigeti — who happened to first come to Hawaii as a young pro surfer — issued a congratulatory statement. It read, in part: “Today, the Eddie celebrated the ultimate stoke of surfing and its greatness to Hawaii’s legacy. The whole world saw the world’s most prestigious surfing event at the world’s premier surfing mecca on Oahu’s magnificent North Shore.”

When Clyde Aikau read this, he saw it as an opportunity to secure HTA funding, which comes from a state tourism tax. The HTA sponsors sports events that it determines help increase tourism; that’s how it justified a $4 million to $5 million annual outlay for the NFL’s Pro Bowl.

Aikau said he was encouraged after a meeting with HTA Vice President Leslie Dance, but could not get a follow-up, and his proposal was rejected. He railed against the HTA, and to a lesser extent Quiksilver, in an exclusive interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in December (see video on staradvertiser.com).

“You give millions to the NFL, millions to golf,” Aikau said, wondering why there’s no money for the Eddie.

Szigeti responded in length.

“We have a process in place to objectively go through every request. … I stay totally out of it,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a misnomer that once they get the meeting they assume they’re going to get money. That’s not so; there are rules that we have to go through because it’s a state agency. … I think the (funding) committee does a good job.”

The request was for $100,000 per year to sponsor the Eddie’s opening ceremony, Szigeti said.

“Imagine the feedback if we pay that amount every year, and there’s no event,” he said. “You gotta look at (return on investment). If we spend $800,000 for past years (with no contest) … I don’t know if the ROI is there.

“Are people going to book their vacation hoping the Eddie comes? There was an eight-year gap (between contests). It’s kind of a long shot.”

But the opening ceremony is an event in itself. Many of the world’s greatest big-wave surfers attend, in tribute to the legacy of Eddie Aikau.

Eddie Aikau wasn’t just a surfer, but also a key figure in the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s. That makes the contest named for him much more than a sports event.

The HTA sponsors many Hawaiian cultural activities, such as the Merrie Monarch Festival and the Aloha Festivals, with the stated goal, “To honor and perpetuate the Hawaiian culture and community.”

Part of the HTA’s Hawaiian Culture webpage says, “There has been a renaissance of the Hawaiian language, and Native Hawaiian practitioners are increasingly visible in the visitor industry.”

Perhaps Clyde Aikau should request funding specifically for the Eddie Aikau Foundation’s annual essay contest for Hawaii junior high and high school students, which accepts entries written in Hawaiian.

“We have limited funding,” Szigeti said. “I think some of these big surfing events are better served with corporate sponsorship rather than state.”

But, at this point, there is no corporate sponsorship.

“The (HTA) should be the first guys to support it,” Hemmings said. “Not only does it sell Hawaii, it sells Hawaiian. It’s a cultural icon. … I hope Clyde can find a sponsor.”

He may need more than one. Rarick said even $100,000 is “a drop in the bucket” for running a surf meet.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs should look at investing in the Eddie as well, Hemmings added.

“Hopefully the legacy will be here a hundred years from now,” Clyde Aikau said. “When it’s all said and done, dollars come and go. Fame comes and goes. There’s always going to be someone who rides a bigger wave than you.

“But when I pass away and my grandchildren pass away, people will remember the Eddie.”