Renowned big-wave surfer and Waikiki beachboy Clyde Aikau, 73, a younger brother of the late, legendary waterman Eddie Aikau, has been hospitalized in Las Vegas following emergency heart surgery, according to his family’s statement on their GoFundMe page.

Aikau, a lifetime Oahu resident who serves as contest director of the Eddie Aikau Big-Wave Invitational at Waimea Bay and board member of the non-profit Eddie Aikau Foundation, had traveled to Nevada to attend the Western Regional Native Hawaiian Conference at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino. The event was organized by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement to discuss cultural perpetuation, housing and tourism.

“Last week, while on a work trip at a Hawaii convention at the Westgate in Las Vegas, Uncle Clyde collapsed shortly after leaving a restaurant that night,” the family statement read. It continued that after Aikau was taken to a hospital, doctors “found an aneurysm in his aortic valve. A blessing in disguise that they caught it, but that discovery led to an emergency open heart surgery. Uncle Clyde is currently recovering in a hospital in Las Vegas.”

Clyde Aikau’s son, Ha‘a Aikau, was at his bedside, a family friend, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Star-Advertiser via text message on Monday.

Waves of shock and concern for Aikau rippled through the close-knit community of North Shore big-wave surfers, many of whom have given generously to his cause.

“I know we are all extremely sad about Uncle,” said pro surfer and North Shore native Mason Ho, expressing gratitude for Aikau inviting him to compete in the Eddie on Jan. 22 in a field that included his father, pro surfer Michael Ho.

“I grew up around (the Eddie) and have the utmost respect for the Aikau family,” Mason Ho told the Star-Advertiser in a text message on Monday. “Any time Uncle Clyde speaks to me it hits deep, so during the last Eddie, when he told me ‘Do what you do, have fun,’ that helped me keep my mind right,” he said.

Aikau started surfing in 1964, at age 15, at Waikiki. In 1965, he won the state junior championship in 12-foot waves at Ala Moana Bowls. In 1966, he began a 10-year stint as a lifeguard at Waimea Bay, joining his brother Eddie Aikau, who was the first lifeguard to serve there.

He won the International Surfing Championship at Makaha Beach, and in 1973 became the first Native Hawaiian to win the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship at Sunset Beach. Eddie Aikau won the Kahanamoku event in 1977, a year before he disappeared at sea after paddling his surfboard into the Molokai Channel by night to seek rescue for his crewmates in the overturned Hokule‘a voyaging canoe.

The Duke Kahanamoku Classic was renamed in Eddie Aikau’s honor in 1985, and in 1986 the contest was moved to its current location, where Aikau won the inaugural Quicksilver Eddie Aikau Big Wave Contest at Waimea Bay. He placed fifth in 1990, 10th in 2001, eighth in 2002 and 21st in 2016.

In addition to organizing the Eddie Aikau Invitational and calling the event on or off, following the criteria established by the late founding director George Downing, he ran the Aikau Pure Hawaiian Surf Academy at Waikiki Beach.

According to the academy’s website, Clyde Aikau has been certified as the world’s oldest big-wave rider. The 34th Eddie Aikau Invitational, held in January for only the 10th time in its history, was dedicated to his brothers Eddie and Solomon Aikau, who died in 2022, and longtime Waikiki beachboy China Uemura, who died in January.

A GoFundMe page at gofundme.com/f/help-uncle-clyde-aikau-with-medical-bills has been set up for donations to help pay his medical bills.

The target goal of the Aikau family’s GoFundMe campaign is $200,000, and by Monday night they had raised just over $23,000.

“As you can imagine these medical bills are already piling up, we still need to get him home, and we don’t know when he will be able to return to work,” the family statement says. “Please help us support The Aikau Ohana financially! Anything helps.”

Donors to date include members of the surf community: Eddie alumni Kelly Slater, Emily Erickson, and 2023 winner and Waimea Bay lifeguard Luke Shepardson; world longboard champion Kelia Moniz, her brothers Seth, Josh and Micah Moniz, and their mother Tammy Moniz, who with their father, beachboy Tony Moniz, also teaches surfing at Waikiki Beach; Shaun Tomson, Danny Kwock, and many more.