Kahuku graduate Jake Maki is the youngest surfer to compete at the big wave surfing competition
The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational is considered the most prestigious surfing contest, said Jake Maki, an 18-year-old Kahuku High School graduate who was invited to surf in the competition this year. The illustrious nature of this competition is partly why Maki said he was so shocked he was invited.
Last year, Maki said an online competition called “The Wave of the Day” used video submissions of surfing footage, since they could not run the competition in-person. Maki explained he submitted a video of himself surfing at 17 years old and was invited to the Eddie this year because of that.
“I got the email while I was in class,” he said. “Honestly, I thought it was a joke or fake at first. It was such a surreal moment.” Being invited to the Eddie has always been one of his biggest goals, he said. “To achieve that at 17 years old, I just can’t believe it. I still can’t believe I competed in it.”
Loving surfing
“The first wave I ever caught,” recalled Maki, “my dad pushed me into. I got all the way to the beach and hit the rocks and got all cut up. But I stuck with it.” Maki grew up on the Big Island, he said. “I had to scale down cliffs and walk on rocks and reef to surf.” When he moved to Oahu in high school, he said the sandy beaches felt like paradise.
Maki said he started surfing because he liked being in the ocean. Now his favorite parts of surfing include the friends he’s made across the globe and the lifestyle of surfers supporting one another, he shared.
“I’ve traveled to the East and West Coast of the mainland,” he said. “Fiji, Australia [and] Tahiti. What’s really cool is all the people I’ve met at these places eventually make their way to the North Shore. It’s the epicenter of surfing.”
Maki said he competed a lot from ages 10 to 16, but in the past few years he’s been focusing on school and bigger waves. “The community in the big wave line-up is a lot cooler than the two-foot waves where everyone is battling each other,” he said.
Who is Eddie Aikau?
The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational honors Eddie Aikau, a pioneer of big wave surfing and lifeguarding in Hawaii, says SurferToday. The website said he was the first lifeguard on the North Shore and saved over 500 lives.
During his lifetime, there were no jet skis to help him with lifeguarding, just his surfboard and swim fins. SurferToday said he would often pull people out of Waimea Bay’s huge surf when nobody else would. This is where the phrase “Eddie would go” originated, the website states, as Aikau would do what nobody else dared to.
In 1978, Aikau joined the cultural expedition of the Polynesian voyaging canoe, Hokule’a, said SurferToday. The canoe set sail from Hawaii, bound for Tahiti, the website explained. When the canoe capsized in a storm, Aikau paddled his board toward Lanai to get help for his crew members, but he was never seen again.
Since 1984, the Eddie Surf Competition has only been held nine times, before this year, at Waimea Bay because the waves have to be at least 20 feet consistently for the event to happen, Hawaii’s KHON2 says. SurferToday said this years waves reached “unforgettable” heights of 50 to 60 feet.
The world’s best surfers are invited to the event, and this year there were 40 invitees, according to KHON2’s report of the event.
North Shore Lifeguard Luke Shephardson won the Eddie this year while wearing his yellow T-shirt and red shorts lifeguard uniform. He reportedly won $10,000 and 350,000 Hawaiian Airlines Miles.