The Eddie Aikau - Fighting off the monster
Noah Johnson connects to the Eddie Aikau contest in all the right ways. He's fearless, humble, respectful and local, and when somebody takes a really "sick" drop on the North Shore, causing great hoots from the beach at Pipeline, Backdoor or Waimea, there's a pretty fair chance it's Noah.
Last year at this time he was a lost soul, riding big waves but struggling along without a sponsor. Then came the epic tow-in session at Outside Log Cabins, etching his name into Hawaiian lore. And finally, the crowning touch: On New Year's Day 1999, Johnson became the third winner of the Quiksilver-sponsored Aikau contest in the 25-foot surf of Waimea Bay.
"Eddie Would Go." That's been a catch-phrase for years on the North Shore, and an ever-popular bumper sticker. This year, finally, Eddie went. The contest had been held only twice previously, with a half-day misfire in 1995, and people were beginning to wonder if it would ever be held again.
The lesson: Never count out the magic of Hawaiian surf. In what turned out to be a classic call by contest director George Downing, Johnson earned his $55,000 in the kind of waves Eddie always loved: a solid 20 feet all day, with 25-foot sets and an occasional closeout surprise.
With everyone getting a chance to surf in two heats of 45 minutes each, Johnson scored 261 points to edge out Australian Tony Ray, at 254, with Johnny Boy Gomes finishing third and Maverick's standout Peter Mel coming in fourth. Johnson, who grew up in Hilo on the Big Island, joins Clyde Aikau ('86) and Keone Downing ('90) on this most exlusive list.
George Downing and his collaborators didn't just want the Aikau to run this year -- they needed it. Maverick's had stolen the spotlight as the world's premier big-wave spot (at this writing, the Quiksilver/Maverick's contest remains on hold). Tow-in surfing became the rage, making heroes out of Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Pete Cabrinha and Ken Bradshaw, among others. Even Todos Santos gained a little edge, with the Reef Brazil contest last February that netted Taylor Knox his $50,000 wave.
Although Clyde Aikau surprised many observers by stepping down as a competitor, there was a strong, positive vibe to this year's Aikau press conference and opening ceremony. Then came word of a giant swell heading toward Hawaii around the first of the year. As it became targeted for New Year's Day, it was assumed that the contest would be out of luck; holidays have always been off-limits for contests in Hawaii.
But Downing wasn't hearing of it this time. With the help of sympathetic friends at lifeguard headquarters, he stated his case to the Honolulu City & County Parks and Recreation Department -- and got his permit. That was a signal to everyone that Eddie, at long last, would go.
At the crack of dawn that morning, things didn't look so good. The surf was there, but so was a nasty onshore wind and periodic rainshowers. Then the waves backed off for a while, and everyone went into their "maybe some other time" mode. All but Downing. Trusting his buoy readings, and showing some faith in an improving weather pattern, he gave the go-ahead.
"It was pretty squirrelly for a while," said Bradshaw. "The waves were all twisted, it was windy, it really looked terrible. But it was 20-foot-plus. Everybody was up for it. After all these years, let's hold it -- get it over with. I'm really glad they did."
There were a few noticeable lulls during the day, and because certain heats didn't get the "bombs," a few surfers were eliminated on pure luck. "But there were maybe eight 25-foot sets," said Bradshaw, "and two or three sets that just closed out the Bay altogether."
And the winds, in concert with sunnier skies, swung around in the tradewind direction, lending a decent texture to the water.
A few faces were noticeably missing: Laird Hamilton and Darrick Doerner, who generally opt for tow-in sessions on huge days; Richard Schmidt, whose wife recently bore a child back home in Santa Cruz; and Keoni Watson, who was snowboarding in Tahoe and consumed by a different mission: Proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Shawna (she said yes). Otherwise, attendance was full. Even with all the doubt surrounding this contest in the 1990s, the other 20 entrants were on hand and ready to go. Buzzy Kerbox, Cheyne Horan, Elijah Young and Chava Greenlee were the lucky surfers off the altnerate list, and Horan cashed in with an impressive seventh-place finish.
There were many highlights. With a heavy west influence in the swell, some of the bigger waves turned into lefts on the inside reform, creating unspeakably heavy action in the shorebreak. Kelly Slater pulled an off-the-lip in the whitewater hideousness, bringing great cheers from the beach (including his very conspicuous girlfriend, Pamela Anderson). And Michael Ho did a full-bore soul arch in the barrel, casually throwing his hands behind his back and relaxing as the wave started to unload. He took a frightful pounding, tweaking his back and tailbone and needing assistance from several lifeguards to make it safely up the beach.
Rusty Keaulana, a goofyfoot who normally rides backside going right, switched stance (think about that caliber of talent) to better handle the massive drops. That helped earn a fifth-place finish for Rusty, who normally takes a backseat to his brother, Brian, in the big-wave arena. Mel showed his customary brilliance in any kind of surf: 3-foot Santa Cruz, 12-foot Sunset, 25-foot Maverick's or pumping Waimea. Tom Carroll looked solid and comfortable.
"Everybody just went off," said the 25-year-old Johnson. "That was the cool thing about it. The whole day, people were doing unreal stuff. Chava had a crazy drop; Derek Ho had one. Tony Ray got a couple of insane waves. Guys were just fully killing it out there."
The heaviest rides, both scoring 96 on a judging scale of 100, belonged to Johnson and Johnny Boy Gomes, who launched himself into a double-up monster, stroked extra hard to get over the ledge, then pulled off his descent into what looked like certain destruction. "I was surprised at Johnny Boy out there," said Bradshaw. "He always amazes me. He's got so much damn desire to do good, he almost wills it to happen."
Gomes seemed moved by the occasion, saying later, "I'm just really honored and feel fortunate to be in this contest. There's no other contest in the world close to this. To be considered one of the best big-wave riders in the world is a huge honor."
And that one particular wave? "I knew I had to go," said Gomes. "That was my New Year's resolution -- never pull back. Just like Eddie. Do or die."
Johnson, determined to wait out the biggest waves, wrapped up the contest with his 96 on a 25-foot beast -- "probably the biggest wave I've ever paddled into at Waimea," he said -- in the second round.
Only three other surfers managed rides of 90 or more points: Ray's 92 in the first round, Rusty Keaulana's 91 in the first round and Carroll's 94 in the second round.
"The whole thing with Noah was his patience," said Randy Rarick, the pro tour's Triple Crown director who helped Downing organize the event. "It wasn't so much that he out-surfed everybody. It was just his timing, and his good fortune to be out there for a bomber set or two."
As a full-charging member of the tow-in contingent, Johnson was surfing Waimea for only the second time in three winters. But for the truly committed, old habits never die. Johnson played it in the grand tradition of Jose Angel, Peter Cole and Pat Curren: Wait for the bomb. Let a bunch of waves go by, if that's what it takes. The wave most remembered is the Wave of the Day.
"With a 45-minute heat, you can afford to wait a while," Johnson said. "I had three or four good-sized ones in the first round, and I was in second place. I realized, shit, I could actually win this thing if I kept going. So I needed to top the ones I already had.
"The whole day, I'd seen guys just missing the big ones. They caught the wrong wave, or were on their way back out, whatever, they were out of position. So I just stayed in the spot, waiting. About halfway through the heat this macker came. I stroked into it, got down to the bottom, made my turn, and I was just thinking, 'Yeah!' The second section fully mowed me off my board. The whitewater hit me twice, and it was kind of amazing -- for a moment there I was doing a layback. I was lying down and my feet were still on the board. No way, though. I saw the video, and the thing pretty much blew me to pieces."
But not before he'd scored the 96 that won him $55,000. "I'm so stoked, it's like a dream," he said. "I can't believe it happened. It's mind-blowing, it's amazing. Usually I just screw up and blow it in contests. Somehow I kept my head together out there. All my decisions were right."
Some of the North Shore's seasoned veterans could see it coming, particularly Bradshaw, who took Johnson under his wing nearly 10 years ago. Noah was just 16 at the time, and his father had a skiing buddy who knew Bradshaw from a couple of Big Island visits. Noah had a passion for big waves and wanted badly to surf with Bradshaw and the other legends of the North Shore.
"Noah's parents are both teachers, and they wanted him to go to college," said Bradshaw. "Noah had other ideas, and when I got a sense of this kid's desire, I told his parents he had a future in surfing, that he had the heart for it. At 16, he had no problem surfing good-sized Sunset. He just had that look in his eye."
When a National Geographic video crew came to shoot a big-wave piece, they wanted to pair Bradshaw with an up-and-coming surfer. "They asked me to use Kelly Slater," said Bradshaw. "But at that time, Kelly had shown no real interest in big waves. I told 'em I've got this kid Noah Johnson, he's got a lot of stoke, and he's just sort of a normal guy."
If you've seen the piece -- one of the better treatments of surfing by outside interests -- you recall the sight of Johnson, painfully naive, working in a fast-food restaurant and following Bradshaw into the water at Waimea. Skeptics surely thought to themselves, "No way." As he matured over the years, Johnson proved to everyone that he's the real thing.
His breakthrough really came last Jan. 28, with Johnson one of a dozen tow-in surfers at Outside Log Cabins in 30-40-foot surf -- the largest waves ever ridden on Oahu. Bill Sickler saw it. Johnson got the ultimate compliment from Sickler, a North Shore carpenter who has ridden gigantic swells with consummate class since the 1970s.
"It was such a pleasure to watch Noah out there," said Sickler, who watched the session through binoculars from his home above Pupukea. "I've never really seen him before. I knew he charged, but I didn't know he did it with such assurance. This kid's gonna be unbelievable. He went out there and just took command."
Shortly after that, Johnson got back on the endorsement map with a sponsorship from Etnies. "They're a really cool company, they're the ones that kept me afloat all last year," he said.
Then, in November, Johnson hooked up with Hurley, the big-money offshoot of the Billabong company. In the wake of the Aikau contest, everyone in surfing knows his name.
Johnson's victory was a big morale booster for Bradshaw, who surfed in the contest (against the advice of an orthopedic surgeon) despite a painful back injury suffered during a tow-in session at Outside Backyards a few days before the contest. Bradshaw felt an obligation to surf, because as Clyde Aikau stepped down, he mentioned Bradshaw's name (along with Keone Downing and Brian Keaulana) as those he expected to "carry the torch" in Eddie's name.
"I was hurtin' so bad out there," said Bradshaw. "I was just trying to support everyone else, basically. Especially Noah. He's like family to me. When he came to the North Shore, he stayed with me off-and-on for three years. He went through more than 50 of my boards during that time. In fact, he was riding one of my 9-6s in the contest. It's so funny, that board is totally banged up. Has a couple inches missing off the nose and a piece of glass off the tail. On top of that, I'd just shaped Noah a new one. But he used that old 9-6, he loves it so much. It was classic. He was just the full surf dog, and he rocked the show."
Rarick, who surfed in the '86 Aikau and has seen it all go down, good and bad, since the mid-60s, noticed a distinct changing of the guard. "The younger guys were quicker, more enthusiastic, charging a lot harder," he said. "Guys like Noah and Rusty and Peter Mel and Tony Ray. The guys in their 40s, like Brian (Keaulana) and Titus (Kinimaka) and Bradshaw, got a lot more conservative. I know exactly how they feel, because I've backed off the really big waves as I've gotten toward the age of 50. But you could see the change. After so many years of not running the contest, the older guys have sort of mellowed with age, and their performance mellowed with it."
Rarick was in a position to "take everyone's pulse," as he put it, by handing out the contest jerseys that morning. "I pretty much could tell who really wanted it, who maybe wasn't that into it. And Brock Little, to me, was a different guy. He seems kind of over it, too. Brock didn't have anywhere near the attitude he had in 1990 (when his Aikau bravado shocked the world). It was sort of 'been there, done that' for him."
As the new guard slowly takes over, watch for Mel and Ray. Watch for Slater and Ross Williams and Shane Dorian, all of whom distinguished themselves this year. And watch for Noah Johnson, once a wide-eyed protege, now a man living his dreams.
FINAL PLACINGS
1. Noah Johnson 261
2. Tony Ray 254
3. John Gomes 243
4. Peter Mel 242
5. Rusty Keaulana 241
6. Tony Moniz 231
7. Cheyne Horan 229
8. Tom Carroll 228
9. Kelly Slater 227
10. Ross C-Jones 225
11. Keone Downing 216
12. Michael Ho 210
13. Shane Dorian 207
14. Brock Little 191
15. Ross Williams 186
and Chava Greenlee 186
17. Elijah Young 181
18. Ken Bradshaw 177
and Titus Kinimaka 177
20. Sunny Garcia 164
21. Shawn Briley 148
22. Buzzy Kerbox 147
23. Brian Keaulana 114
24. Derek Ho 105
(Prize money ranged from $10,000 for second place to $1,000 for sixth place. Places 7 through 24 received $600 each.)
The Eddie Aikau - Fighting off the monster
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