EAF Essay Contest Results - Eddie Aikau Foundation.
Since the contest’s conception in 1984, it’s been held nine times with the bay providing sufficient sized swells for the world-renowned contest. 2016 was the last year it was held. Past winners.
The surf competition was first staged in 1984 to honor Eddie Aikau, an accomplished surfer and the first lifeguard to work along Oahu’s North Shore.
The foundation holds the annual contest as part of their mission to “share Eddie Aikau’s life, contributions and accomplishments while promoting education and the advancement of Hawaiian culture.” Here is the 2012 prompt: As a City and County lifeguard, Eddie Aikau often risked his life to make sure the beaches were safe for everyone.
Iconic big-wave rider from Honolulu, Hawaii; winner of the 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Classic surf contest, just three months before dying in a boating accident; regarded as the greatest Waimea surfer of his time, and namesake to the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big-wave surf contest.
Eddie took on every major swell to come through the North Shore from 1967 to 1978. As a competitor, his best contest result was a win in the 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship. Eddie Aikau saw big wave surfing, not as a competition, but as a personal goal. He dreamed of reaching the height of his heroes.
Seth Reiss, family friend and attorney, read a statement from the Aikaus at the luncheon, saying “the contest reminds us of Eddie, of (Waimea) Bay, of surfing, and of Hawaiian culture.
Crowds pack Waimea Bay during the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big wave surfing contest in February 2016.