Clyde Aikau Archives - littlebigfootblog.com

new menu same venue

there is more

an open mind
it is your fare
your check signed
to become aware

take your banknote
get ready to soar
in his big boat
waiting on the shore

your boredom erase
find your big friend
time to put your face
in the wind

grab an oar
forget your gold
there is more 
than you've been told

that same truth 
found under the steeple
along with it move
the forest people

what you crave 
you will receive 
in the wind in waves
over the tree leaves

After I published the post yesterday morning on Clyde and Eddie Aikau I saw that they were having a paddle out at Waikiki to honor Clyde Aikau’s life. There was no footage of the actual ceremony. They were just interviewing people who were showing up early either to participate or watch the event. They did announce that if anyone was taking out a flower or leaf lei that they had to take the string off before they threw it in the ocean.

The new drop down menu is now in place and operational on the blog. I have listed the posts that pertain to the subsections in the menu with clickable links. There is only one drone flyover video so far. That is the Long Run Park one that I did on my third flight. There is a lot of room for improvement in that video (and really the whole blog : ) ). I still have a lot to learn on the operation of the drone and its camera and the video editing.

Check out the menu. I have only listed bigfoot events and attractions in that subsection. This morning’s post will be #63 in the blog so far and most of the posts have been about bigfoot so there are too many individual posts about bigfoot to try to categorize them in the menu. I am thinking about trying to go back and retitle the posts. I am going to try to give them titles that more accurately portray their content and whether or not they have a video link. So if you are searching for a specific bigfoot related issue this would make it faster.

The design and appearance of the blog is plain and simple. That is not by accident. When I put this thing together I had the option to use many prebuilt templates that were very professional and impressive looking. That would have saved a lot of time and effort. But I wanted something very plain that focused on content. In a way this blog is a wave or a nod to those kindred spirits out there who miss going to Hawley Cooke ( a beloved local bookstore that is no more) or where ever they used to find the magazine rack that they could just get lost in. Maybe the word salute would be better than “a wave or a nod.” Much respect : )

Enjoy your Friday !

smile a lot

Hawaii

Eddie Would Go

listeners of the wind

we plow in the dark
hands on the handle
his hands on the bark
bigfoot lights the candle

our ignorance broken
we see a glimmer 
we hear it mind spoken
a voice from a shimmer

our inner child is loosed
the know it all is gone
as we are introduced 
n2 the world of the unknown

we have become a seer
a listener of the wind
and now we are freer
than we have ever been

we continue to plow
but are no longer slaves
now let's talk about the Aikaus
who rode the big waves

I had not planned on doing another post on Hawaii so soon but this poem and idea woke me up about 0415 this morning. So I guess we will try to make it to the beach on this wave. I just saw on the internet yesterday where Clyde Aikau had passed away about a month ago. I had always planned on doing a post on Eddie Would Go.

Around 2001 I think we were leaving the Safeway on Kam Highway in Kapolei and I kept on seeing these bumper stickers that said Eddie Would Go. So I immediately found out that they were for Eddie Aikau who had been a legendary lifeguard and big wave surfer at Waimea Bay.

In 1968 Eddie was the first lifeguard hired by the City & County of Honolulu for the North Shore. He had left school at 16 and had been working at the Dole pineapple cannery. No one was lost while he worked as a lifeguard at Waimea. In 1978 he volunteered to be a crew member on the Hokule’a. That is a double hulled voyaging canoe used by the Polynesian Voyaging Society to retrace the routes and methods of the ancient Hawaiians and Polynesians.

The Hokule’a left Hawaii on March 16, 1978. After developing a leak the vessel capsized about 12 miles south of Moloka’i. Eddie volunteered to take his surfboard and swim to Lana’i to get help. Actually he insisted against the captain’s reservations to leave the vessel and go for help. If you read about or watch many of the videos about this tragedy there is a lot of discussion about Eddie convincing the captain to let him go. (Eddie Would Go). Eddie was last seen by the members of the crew taking off his life jacket so he could paddle on his surfboard better. The crew was later rescued by the Coast Guard. According to Wikipedia the search for Eddie’s body was the largest in Hawaiian history.

That is a very brief account of the whole thing. There are many articles and videos on the internet that can catch you up to speed. He has been memorialized with one of the most famous surfing competitions in the world. Quicksilver sponsored “The Eddie” up until 2016. The first one was in 1985. It was held at Sunset Beach. In 1987 the event moved to Waimea Bay and Clyde Aikau won the contest. Hollywood could not make up a better story than Eddie’s little brother winning it the first year at Waimea.

The contest itself has several restrictions. It can only proceed if the waves are a minimum height of 30 feet. I have heard this explained several different ways. And honestly I still don’t have clear understanding of it. Wikipedia says that it has to be a minimum of a 20 feet open-ocean swell that translates to a wave face height of 30 feet. Let’s just say the waves have be too big for most mortals to consider paddling their boards into. And they do have to swim out into the waves with their boards. Jet skis are not allowed to tow surfers out.

Supposedly the phrase “Eddie would Go” was coined by surfer Mark Foo when they were deciding whether or not to proceed with the contest because of the dangerously high waves. Quicksilver has entire surf stores named Eddie Would Go. Or they did. They stopped sponsoring the contest in 2016 and the Aikau family sought out local sponsors to sponsor the event when the waves were high enough. The contest allows 28 surfers to participate.

Hawaii is a place of traffic problems. And the Kam Highway on the North Shore is a 2 lane highway. You can google some of the traffic and parking jams when there is a big surf contest on the north shore. There are even traffic and parking jams when the waves are high and people just want to drive out and park along the highway to watch them.

I am including the links to 3 short videos on the Aikaus. The first one is a short segment of an ESPN film on Eddie. The second one is of Clyde riding his last time at The Eddie. The third one is of Clyde leading a group of surfers out at Waimea before the contest to do the circle ceremony. The news station is using the footage to announce his death. It is almost achingly and hauntingly beautiful. In that third film when he raises his arm and finger in the sky from 1:18 to 1:22 you can see the white bell tower of St. Peter and Paul Church behind him. If you are ever on the North Shore you can use that landmark from almost any where up and down the coast to know where Waimea is.

If you only have time to watch one of the 3 clips watch the last one. Because honestly that is the VIBE that we should all try to be in.

SMILE

ALOHA

Link for Eddie ESPN video.(4:57)

Link for Clyde at The Eddie video.(2:29)

Link for Clyde leading the Circle Ceremony video.(2:22)