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Spot: Makaha, HI
Summary
Makaha means “fierce” in Hawaiian, so there you go. That “fierce” could mean the fierce dryness on this side of the island, which is deserty and barren only a few miles from the tropical gardens of the North Shore. “Fierce could apply to the jagged mountains and valleys which run from several thousand feet straight down to sea level. “Fierce” could also apply to the ocean long this west-facing stretch of coast. The Makaha side gets a lot of wind and a lot of swell breaking on thin stretches of beach bordered by lava and coral. The people on this side of Oahu are also fierce. The Waianae coast is not one of the more fortunate corners of Oahu.
Where other parts of Oahu are being gradually – or rapidly – haoleified with housing developments and CostCos, Makaha is a bastion of Hawaiian living, Hawaiian pride and Hawaiian anger. Some call this the aina, others call it a slum.
Makaha was surfed by the native Hawaiians into the 19th Century, but it was the invention of the modern hot curl board in the 1930s that lured surfers like Wally Froiseth, Woody Brown and John Kelly up from the South Shore to Makaha. As boards got better, surfers got bolder and by the 1950s, Makaha was the premiere big-wave spot on Oahu and in the world. Coast haole like Buzzy Trent, Walter Hoffman and Tom Moore were among the first wave of coast haole to join the Hawaiians in the big waves of Makaha. In 1953, a photo of three surfers scooting along a Makaha wall appeared in mainland newspapers, and inspired the likes of the Van Dyke brothers, Pat Curren, Ricky Grigg and Peter Cole to drop everything and head for the Islands.
Through the 1950s, the big-wave gun was perfected at Makaha by George Downing, Pat Curren, Mike Diffenderfer and many others, as a fast, reliable board was essential for making the Makaha wall from the point through the dreaded Bowl.
The Makaha International Surfing Championships were held from the early 1950s to the middle 1960s, and were televised from 1962 to 1965, raising the profile of Makaha maybe a little too high.
Click here for a YouTube of the 1966 Makaha International Surfing Championships from 1966.
The Makaha era peaked in 1969, when Greg Noll drove around Kaena Point, leaving a closed out North Shore in his wake and chasing the biggest winter swell in recent history around the corner . On that day, Noll was the last man out on a giant day and he paddled into, wiped out on and survived a wave that has gone into legend.
The surfing media turned away from Makaha in the 1970s but the area continued to produce well-known surfers, including the Keaulana brothers, Keone Downing, Sunny Garcia and Johnny Boy Gomes. Media attention on Makaha is not encouraged as the local people don’t want to see what happened to the North Shore happen there. That is not likely to happen soon and the zeitgest on that side of Oahu was summed up by Mel Puu in 1991: “You want to come to Makaha? Don’t!”
Well, it’s not that bad really, but you do have to mind your manners and your Ps and Qs on this side of Oahu. The Hawaiians have good reason to be pissed, and you don’t want any of that directed at you. Click here for a Hawaii Surf Session Report on Makaha, to give you some of the flavor.
The Good
A reliable wave from two feet to 20. Makaha is on the west side so it gets some summer swell from the south and it also gets more than enough winter swell. When Makaha is under eight feet, there are more different kinds of watercraft in the water than anywhere in the world: Braddahs on paipo boards, bodyboards, skimboards in the shorebreak, shortboards, longboards, SUP, canoes, kayaks, outriggers, etc etc.
Click here for a YouTube of the C4 Waterman’s Day in December of 2007, where you’ll see a small, fun day at Makaha being ridden by everything from fish to SUP to outriggers to a giant plastic ball.
The Bad
Eating it in the Bowl on a giant day is very bad indeed. It’s a wonder anyone survives. This is not the best place in the world to be Caucasian. If you are a newcomer and not under the wing of one of the locals, you will be regarded with suspicion, stinkeye and even downright derision. Don’t even think about dropping in on a local surfer, and if anyone drops in on you: Well, remember what happened to Captain Cook.
And if the locals don’t try to eat you, the tiger sharks might. There have been more than a few fatal shark attacks on surfers, divers and swimmers along the Westside. None of them have been right at Makaha but a lot of them have been close, so try not to look like a turtle.
Click here for a YouTube of Rob Machado getting air from the bow of an outrigger on a smaller day at Makaha. You don’t want to get in the way of these guys, so watchit.
The Strange
In the late 1950s, there was a serious plot to dynamite the hated Makaha Bowl, the “royal flaw” in what was the most prized and challenging wave in the world at the time. This was a co-conspiracy of local and haole surfers, and they knew some UDT guys who had the skills and it was all going forward until some or all of the bombers got cold feet and the Bowl remained.
But the Bowl remains the same and these days, there is an informal club called the “Screaming Fifteens” or something like that: “You have to make it through the bowl on that size wave,” said A Local, who was enticed to join the club by Mel Pu’u. “Twelve people have done it. He actually LIKES it that big. I asked him, "What you want ME to be lucky 13?
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