NOTE: This event was actually held in early 1954. Because there were two Makaha Championship contests in 1956, the first four iterations of the event are listed as having taken place in the year before they actually occurred.

"Californians Sweep Surf Events," Honolulu Advertiser, Jan 25, 1954

Walt Hoffman, a Californian in the Coast Guard here, and Joan Jones, won the the mixed tandem crown of the International Surfing Championships at Makaha Beach yesterday.

With several thousand spectators on the beach, Hoffman and his partner won the tandem surfing riding contest from five other finalists.

Tom Zahn of Santa Monica and his partner Marian Furtado were awarded second place, and Pete Peterson, also of Santa Monica, and Ruth Lee, copped third place, giving California a clean sweep of the tandem championships.

Ed Whaley and Mable Wells, Rabbit Kekai and Adreth Felstead, and George Downing and Penny Lee, all of Honolulu, were the other finalists.

Judging was on the rider's ability to select waves, best appearance on the wave, including trick and fancing riding, longest ride, and number of waves caught.

The scheduled senior and junior open surfboard riding championships were postponed when waves were far below the required 15-foot level. The bodysurfing events were also called off after one heat had been run, when waves petered out in the afternoon.

The first heat included 20 of the 80 surfers signed up for this event.

John Lind, co-chariman of the meet, announced that if conditions are right, the senior surfboard championships may be held during the week, possibly on Wednesday.

Upwards of 10,000 people made the trip to Makaha for the second Sunday's program. The Royal Hawaiian Band and several Hawaiian musicians and hula dancers entertained.

"Allen Gomes Wins Juniors Surf Honors," Honolulu Advertiser, Feb 7, 1954

Allen Gomes of Waikiki Surf Club won the junior surfboard riding championship of the International Meet at Makaha Beach yesterday.

Only the event for boys 17 and under was held as waves did not measure up to the required 15-ft foot level for the men’s senior open championship. Waves averaged 10 feet in height yesterday.

George Kaeo of Makaha was second, followed by Francis Williams, Robert Borelis and J Bailey, all of the Makaha Surfing Club.

Williams had the most rides, about 17, but Gomes, who caught 12 waves, won out on superior rides.

John Lind, co-chairman of the meet, said heavy surf is expected today and that if the waves average better than 15 feet in height, the senior men's championships will he held today, starting at 10 a.m.

In the junior event, the contestants wore different colored T-shirts, enabling judges and spectators to follow the surfers more closely. The same system will be used in the senior event.

"The Wild Frontier," by Flippy Hoffman, Surfing magazine, May 1992

We spent three months at Makaha, me and [Bob] Simmons. And I remember the big deal was when they held the first Makaha contest. That first one had a lot of fist-fights and hassles. Typical Hawaiian deal—the big beef was between the local kids and the Town kids. My brother Walter was really tight with the Town kids. The Waikiki Surf Club put on the first Makaha Contest, and the guys from Makaha didn’t really like the guys from Waikiki. So for the first contest, my brother comes out there with a bunch of guys from Town and they start taking waves and taking girls and the Makaha boys really didn’t like that. They had this big luau, and a hassle developed over how to cook the pig. Things got pretty hot, and so instead of beating each other up, they decided to beat the 

. Luckily, Walter was a big guy who everybody respected and so he saved Simmons’ and mine and everybody else’s ass. But this was the kind of deal that was happening.

Excerpts from the 1954 Makaha International Surfing Championships souvenir program

The Waianae Lions Club and Waikiki Surf Club Welcome You to its First Annual International Surfing Championships

Junior boys paddle (16 years and under, 220 yards)

POINT TO BE WATCHED FOR BY JUDGES FOR SURFBOARD RIDING:

Ability to maneuver and control the board on a wave.

Size of wave and judgment used in picking wave

POINTS TO BE WATCHED BY JUDGES
FOR BODYSURFING:

Ability to maneuver and control body on wave.

Size of wave and judgment used in selecting a wave.

JUDGES: Edwin Adolphson, Abel Gomes, John McMahan, Fred Steere, Gene Smith, Douglas Forbes, Wendel Baine, Bill Smith, Jack Cross

ANNOUNCERS: Carlos Rivas, Rudolph Choy, John Lind

 Rabbit Kekai, who won the first annual Diamond Head Championship Paddle’s blue-ribbon event, the paddle to Diamond Head buoy and back to Waikiki Beach, is entered in the mixed tandem surfing, men open Malibu 440 yard paddle, body surfing and the senior open surfboard riding contests. The young paddler has placed high in all the surfboard paddling events he has ever entered and is expected to maintain his superior standing in competitions today. During the canoe season, Rabbit devotes his time to assisting John D. Kaupiko in coaching Hui Nalu’s canoe crews, though he is also a member of the Waikiki Surf Club.

FOUR-TIME WINNER OF DIAMOND HEAD CHAMPIONSHIP

 George Downing of the Waikiki Surf Club, all-round competitor in aquatic sports, is competing in the Open Surfing event, the Senior Surfboard Paddle, Body Surfing and Run-Swim-Run. Without question, he will also be competing in the mixed tandem. Downing, according to old-time surfers, has the ability to stand on his board in the largest of waves with his feet glued to the board as if with suction cups. He has competed in the majority of surfboard paddling and surfing competition at Waikiki for the past six years and each year has been one of the leading competitors. In 1951, he was judged the Outstanding All-Around Aquatic Man of Waikiki, with his name inscribed on the Dudley Pictures trophy. He is holder of the Diamond Head Surfboard Paddle record, having won that event for the past four years. Downing is expected to place high in the competition today.

PETERSON HERE FROM CALIFORNIA TO COMPETE TODAY.

 Preston Peterson, Lieutenant of the Santa Monica Lifeguards is competing in these events as a direct representative of California. Peterson has for many years been recognized as the outstanding surfer and paddler on the Coast.

SURF LIFE SAVING ASSOCIATION MOVEMENT PROGRESSES.

 The Surf Life Saving Associaton of Hawaii which is headed by Edwin Adolphson has since its organization in January of 1953 assisted greatly in the various forms of beach activity during the past year. The group put on an exhibition during the Diamond Head surfboard paddling championships in January of last year, assisted in the patrol of the Makapuu beach area and demonstrated their life-saving techniques during the recent body surfing competition held there. They handled the aquatic events at Waikiki Beach during aloha week and in addition have patroled many of Oahu’s beaches. The Hawaii group is indebted to the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia for introducing their methods here. The group is on duty today performing and ready for any. emergency. Organized clubs are active in Kailua, Waialua and Hauula-Laie areas.

MAKAHA WATERS IDEAL FOR OUTRIGGER CANOE RACING.

 The beautiful calm waters of the Waianae side are ideal for the sport of Outrigger Canoe Racing. It is suggested by outrigger canoe enthusiasts from the Waikiki area that the Makaha civic groups band together and sponsor a day for outrigger canoe racing during the season.

The Waikiki Surf Club is a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of the Territory of Hawaii in 1948 with its main purposes of fostering the sport of surfboard riding, body surfing and outrigger canoeing. The Surf Club has been a home for many beach enthusiasts who previously did not have an organization to compete under. It also made it possible for many of Hawaii’s youngsters who were unable to take part in beach activity to actively participate as individuals with equipment that was eventually acquired by the club. Facilities are available for the membership for surfboards, outrigger canoes, dressing and shower rooms on Waikiki Beach. Since its inception in 1948 the WSC has garnished top honors in the majority of beach sports. Its outrigger canoe crews have won the majority of major canoe races held on Oahu and in Kona, Hawaii for the past six years. The organization, in addition to lending considerable assistance during the canoe racing season, also sponsors on its own, the Hawaii Surfing Championships which are usually held during the summer months at Waikiki and the Annual Diamond Head Surfboard Races held each year between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The organization has spearheaded the annual Aloha Week Molokai to Oahu outrigger canoe race. Its first entry in 1952 took second place in the grueling race, and last year, first and second places. It boasts within its membership many of Hawaii’s current champions in aquatic sports. Membership in the organization is open to men and women, families, for a membership fee of $1 a month and a $10 initiation. Members are privileged to take advantage of all the facilities of the organization and to join in the spirit by assisting in various beach programs sponsored by the organization.

 In 1945, a tall, well-built beachboy took off from the Island of Hawaii on what is probably the most daring feat in the annals of the surfboard.

He paddled from the Big Island of Hawaii to Maui, thence to Lanai and to Molokai, chaining the Islands by surfboard, and leaving a challenge that has been untouched thus far.

The paddler was Gene Smith—Eugene C. Smith, who serves in these International Surfing Championships as a judge. Gene came to Hawaii in 1935. Chaining the Islands by surfboard was a feat that Gene first attempted in 1938, when he made the channel journey from Molokai to Oahu by board in eight hours, 35 minutes.

That began what became an almost ordinary event in the life of Tarzan Smith, for soon afterwards, he paddled from Oahu to Kauai, then in 1945, began his trip across the channels of the Hawaiian Island chain. In the early months of 1950, Smith fought his way to Kauai accompanied by an escort boat, which on several occasions Smith lost contact with, leaving him unescorted for several hours in the waters of the channel The trip was a harrowing one full of thrills and demands that would have forced the average paddler out of the waters.

Smith’s paddling feats, restricted by World War II, resumed in full force in October 1945, when he took off from Upolu Point for Maui. That paddle was made on a board borrowed from Jack Cross, who offered the board when John Lind, then president of the Hawaii Surfing Association, received word from Smith that his own board had been damaged in transit. At 12:20 a.m. October 24, after several days camping at Upolu Point, Gene launched his board toward Maui, where he arrived at 12-45 p.m. at Waluka, Kaupo, Maui. His compass and the stars were his guides to the Valiev island, for he was unable to see the Island at night. Gene wrote later that he carried “two knives, a pistol, watch, compass, chocolate, orange juice, and a flashlight. The chocolate became wet and was thrown away. I didn’t drink the orange juice because I wanted to save it for an emergency in case I landed on a deserted spot or had to spend another night at sea. I didn’t expect to get in by night as the current was strong and the water was rough.”

It was Gene’s toughest paddle. And it was done without an escort.

Later, after he had recovered his strength. Gene paddled from Maui to Lanai, and from Lanai to Molokai finishing his recording of having crossed the channels between each of the major Hawaiian Islands.

Filled with the same daring courage that prompted Gene Smith to make his first island-to-island paddle, Thomas C. Zahn, made the Molokai to Oahu paddle in October 1953 as part of the Aloha Week aquatic events. Zahn began his paddle in the waters off Kaukiu Beach near Tlio Point, Molokai, where the canoes that participated in the Aloha Week canoe race were launched from.

Zahn, who was for 11 years a Santa Monica lifeguard and was for one year a lieutenant of the lifeguards, is a Pacific Coast surfboard and dory paddling champion.

He made the paddle across the Molokai-Oahu channel from Kaukiu Beach to Makapuu Light House in about six hours, then, without stopping continued around Oahu to Waikiki Beach, thus paddling from Ilio Point to Waikiki Beach nine hours 20 minutes. Zahn recommends the Channel paddle for “anyone who’s looking for exercise!”

4,000 AT MAKAPUU BEACH SEE FIRST BODYSURFING COMPETITION, SPONSORED BY WAIKIKI SURF CLUB. 

More than 4,000 people jammed the beach, crags and highway along Makapuu Beach last August to watch 107 body surfers—some of whom you will see in action at Makaha during this International Surfing Championship—compete for top honors in the first body surfing competition to be held on Oahu in more than 12 years.

Nine surfers were chosen out of the field as the champions, according to newspaper reports. They were Harry Kalahiki, Louis Zarko, Charles Todd, Kennis Rowe, Rabbit Kekai, Renny Kruger, Noah Kalama, Sr., George Downing and Buster Kine.

So many turned out for the event that automobiles were parked along Kalanianaole Highway for about two miles to the leeward of Makapuu during the midday. Police officers sped through their ticket- books as they tagged scores of vehicles parked along the highway, newspapers reported.

A life-saving demonstration was presented by the Kailua Surf Life Saving Club which is an affiliate of the Hawaii Surf Life Saving Association. Dan Kamalani is president of the Kailua Club, and Bud Adolph- son is the president of the association.

The event proved so popular that Waikiki Surf Club, sponsors of the event, promised that another would be held in the near future.

The bodysurfing contests being held at Makaha are a realization of that promise, with the co-sponsorship of the Waianae Lions Club.

Officials for the event, besides the chairman, were Jimmy Alama and Scoop Tsuzuki, recorders and the following judges: George Malama, David Heiser, Henry Lum, Mr. Adolphson and William Bishop.

The first meeting of the Makaha Surf Club was held in the Nanakuli community center on December 21, 1953.

The following officers were elected: President, George Soon; Vice President, Louis Kahoonei; Secretary, James Glover; Treasurer, Philip Nanoe. Mr. George Downing of the Waikiki Surf Club presented the showing of the Waikiki Surf club’s colorful movies of surfing at Makaha and Maile and other scenes of Waikiki Surf Club activity. The Makaha Surf Club now less than one month of age boasts a membership of close to 100 and the registration is still in progress.

Membership in the club is open to surfers as well as interested residents of the Nanakuli, Waianae, Makaha districts. The organization has adopted the constitution and by-laws of the Waikiki Surf Club. With the development of surfing in all forms in this district, it is hoped that the community will get behind this new club and assist it in its various activities.

1953 Makaha International Surfing Championships

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

Videos

Contests