"40-FOOTERS ARE HERE, SURFER IS THERE," HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER (1974)

This unattributed article ran in the January 8, 1974, edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, just one month after big-wave surfer Jim Neece told the Star-Bulletin that his plan to ride a monster wave at Kaena Point, for a $12,500 payday, was a virtual certainty.

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Jim “Wildman” Neece, the North Shore surfer who announced he was planning to ride a 40-foot Kaena Point wave, left for Los Angeles Sunday and will not be able to become the first person to ride the legendary waves. Neece left after he reportedly suffered a hairline fracture on his temple during an altercation on the North Shore.

However, KP Productions, the company which planned to film the ride, is at present negotiating in an effort to find a replacement, according to Bill Roseberry, one of the partners in charge of the company. Roseberry said the company is negotiating with “two or three leading North Shore surfers,” but declined to name them.

Roseberry explained that Neece was injured when he was “hit in the eye.”

Neece left for Los Angeles because his family lives there and the physicians there who know his personal medical history will be better able to help him, said Roseberry.

The filmmaker said the company hopes to take advantage of the storm surf which has been battering the North Shore. He reported that the surf was 50 feet at Kaena Point, but too choppy because of strong winds.

Roseberry said tomorrow is the earliest the company will shoot a surfer—if one takes the offer—on a wave at Kaena Point.

Roseberry said KR productions has 12 people here to film the ride which will be the basis of a 90-minute, $200,000 movie to be distributed to major theaters around the country.

[Note: nobody took Roseberry up on the offer, and no film was made]