Two years since its last staging, the embattled Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational Surf Contest is back with a new, all-Hawaii roster of sponsors and a new round of prayers for the mountainous surf that has made the event world famous.
“The Eddie” was last held at Waimea Bay in 2016 and has been on tenuous hiatus since then after a public falling out with former title sponsor Quiksilver, the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based surf gear and apparel company.
New sponsors are Kamehameha Schools, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Waimea Valley, the planning and design studio DTL, the film production company Salt + Air Studios, L&L Hawaii and Duke’s Waikiki.
The event honors legendary North Shore waterman Eddie Aikau, the lifeguard and big-wave surfer who famously disappeared in 1978 after attempting to swim 12 miles to shore to get help for fellow crew members of the voyaging canoe Hokule‘a, which had capsized in stormy seas off Molokai.
“With this new sponsorship collaboration, we celebrate Native Hawaiian ingenuity, innovation and identity and look forward to educating the world about the history of the sport and its Native Hawaiian origins while paying homage to Eddie Aikau, and the importance of his sacrifice,” said Kau‘i Burgess, Kamehameha Schools director of community and government relations, in an email.
In an announcement Saturday, the Eddie Aikau Foundation said the new sponsors “acknowledge and align with Eddie’s Hawaiian roots.” Details for this year’s event are scant pending a promised news conference by the Aikau family sometime this week.
However, new information posted on the event website indicated the prestigious surf contest will be staged, conditions permitting, sometime during its traditional holding window from December through February.
The competition is held only when surf heights at Waimea Bay are consistently forecast at 20 feet or higher. Since its inception in 1984, the competition has been held only nine times. John John Florence won the last contest in February 2016, the first time in eight years surf conditions had met the minimum requirement.
The holding period went unobserved in the 2017-18 season when negotiations between the Aikau family, Quiksilver and Red Bull, which handled event media, broke down amid reported conflicts over merchandising, concessions and other financial concerns.
It is not clear how much money the new sponsors will contribute. The last time the contest was staged, the prize purse alone totaled $186,500, including $75,000 for the winner Florence.
That year, an estimated 1.2 million people watched the live stream of the event from some 200 different countries.
Twenty-nine top surfers have been invited to participate, including past winners Florence, Ross Clarke- Jones, Bruce Irons, Kelly Slater and Greg Long. This year’s invitees also include one woman, Keala Kennelly.
Aaron Gold of Haleiwa was previously invited to The Eddie six times but got to surf it only once, in 2016, when he finished 10th.
“Having grown up dreaming of being in it and being in the event, for it not to be around anymore it really felt like something was missing,” said Gold, 36. “Wow, it’s back, and to be able to have something like that for my kids and the generations after to carry on that tradition is very, very important.
“It’s about being able to share the culture we have here in Hawaii, and share Eddie’s heritage and the culture of being a waterman and having those skills in the ocean not only as a surfer but carrying yourself with aloha.”
Also invited was Kai Lenny of Maui, who was only an alternate in past years and has never competed in The Eddie.
“It was a childhood dream of mine and I really wanted to be a part of it,” said Lenny, 26. “When it was called off it was devastating, but now, hearing that it’s coming back and especially with Hawaiian support, that just makes the legacy of the event even that much more powerful.
“It’s really special and it makes me feel honored, to say the least.”
Gold and many other surfers on the invitation list are in transit to join Lenny on Maui for Hawaii’s other notable big-wave contest, the Jaws Challenge at Peahi. The World Surf League’s Big Wave Tour event is expected to run Monday in 35- to 45-foot surf.
Lenny is a champion across multiple board sports, but relishes the risk and rewards of riding monster swells. He said The Eddie is “the pinnacle of the sport.”
The Maui surfer just got back from a big-wave contest in Portugal. “This winter is one of the best in a long time and I have a feeling The Eddie will run this year,” he said. “It seems like all the stars are aligning this year. It’s the purest of Hawaiian events and the timing makes it feel like it’s meant to be.”
Longtime surf promoter Randy Rarick said he was encouraged to see the contest get the support it needs to continue. He said that as long as the Aikau family maintains the focus of the event on the memory and legacy of Eddie Aikau, then it will continue to resonate within the surfing community.
“The prize money is secondary,” he said. “There is still a lot of prestige just in being invited and competing.”
According to the National Weather Service, high surf will coincide with large northwest swells along north and west shores of Oahu through the middle of the coming week. The holding period for The Eddie begins Dec. 1.
This year’s opening ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at Waimea Bay. For information, visit theeddieaikau.com or follow @theeddieaikau on Instagram.
Christie Wilson contributed to this report.
