"AND IT WAS AN OVERCAST DAY," KAENA POINT ARTICLE BY FRED VAN DYKE (1976)

"And it was an Overcast Day," by Fred Van Dyke, ran in the May 1976 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited.

* * *

January 19 awakened into a cool 60+ degrees on the North Shore. High cirrus clouds blanketed the sky. We call them big-surf clouds. Peter Cole phoned and said that there was a huge fetch wedging toward the islands from the Alaskan Peninsula. As I left for school on this morning, I could see from my front lawn that there was a large north swell sweeping the sand from shore. I thought little of it, as I had just gotten out of the hospital recently from a knee operation, and could not surf for another month.

That afternoon, in a relaxed mood, I drove back into my driveway and could suddenly feel something in the air. I saw Flippy Hoffman, Roger Erickson, David Kahanamoku, and Jeff Johnson sitting on my partially finished surf-checkout deck. Flippy’s smile, David’s casual glance, Roger’s flushed faced, and Jeff’s sunburned back vibrated that something unusual had transpired.

Flippy motioned me toward the scene. "This is it, Van Dyke. Hang onto your hat," he said. "We rode Kaena Point today.”

“C’mon,” I retorted. “Where’d you ride?”

Flippy continued, "It’s no big thing. We rode it. We took the boat, Jeff’s, and went right off the point. It was only 15 to 20 feet, and no strain. I got one ride that threw out like Waimea, but no rocks to destroy your board. The boards popped out into an inside channel. Jeff or me, whoever was manning the boat, would pull us by rope on our board back out to the lineup.”

“What about the outside peak? Did it catch you?”

"Nah,” replied Flippy. “It was barely feathering. It’d take another 10 foot to make that one break. We just rode and had a ball. It was fun, an open door at 15'. Cadillac riding,” added Flippy.

They were stoked. It definitely was a historic moment, but the four of them sat watching the sunset as if it were just another day, Flippy Hoffman, 40-plus years old, a businessman; and the youngest, David Kahanamoku, not yet 20. They talked of neat rides, a fast boat, the tow-rope, and a huge whale which was cavorting outside as they surfed Kaena Point.

Jeff Johnson had ridden a 12-foot board shaped by Mike Eaton, and David Kahanamoku a 9'8" gun shaped by Rick Irons. Flippy had his Brewer, and Roger another 12-foot Eaton gun. The boards sat on the lawn still dripping salt water from their Kaena Point invasion.

That evening, as I sat and talked with Flippy, I thought back to all the publicity, all the grand gestures made by the tripod-fever nuts who had threatened to surf Kaena, but had never done it.

Flippy said, “Hey, Van Dyke. It was just a lot of fun; I mean real fun.”

No one but a few people even knew it had happened. There were no cameras, no TV coverage, no helicopters. Just four guys stoked on riding big waves—and it was an overcast day to boot.

[Flippy Hoffman photo by Art Brewer]