Hawaii's Kaena Point has been on big-wave surfing's horizon, literally and figuratively, for as long as there has been big-wave surfing. More so in decades past than now, but it is not out of the question that Kaena will at some future date once again grab our attention, and if that happens it will likely be spectacular and terrifying.

Kaena sits at the secluded end of a long, dry, spear-point-shaped landform dividing Oahu's north and west shores, and is wide open to incoming North Pacific swells. On the biggest days at Makaha, surfers in the lineup can look up the coast and watch Kaena in the hazy distance as waves of unknown size and mass break a half-mile or so off the point. North Shore surfers, meanwhile, have always watched the sun go down behind the shadowed cliffs of Kaena. The point is omnipresent and foreboding. Hawaiians believed, still believe, that souls of the newly dead lift off from Kaena's uppermost ridge into the next world. A mountainside cave is said to be home to a Nanaue, a flesh-eating man-shark demigod. 

In 1897, the the "Kaena Point ghost" made headlines, briefly, as Japanese laborers working on the OR&L railway reported a haunting. (The papers later said it was the work not of spirits but "quite a number of cups of sake.")

It was a fraught place on a temporal level as well. Workers in the 1890s died while dynamiting, grading, and laying track for the OR&L, and decades later the Army would close the entire area for days at a time for anti-aircraft artillery practice. Huge fish were hooked, fought, and caught off Kaena Point. In 1940, paddleboard king Gene "Tarzan" Smith began his incredible 30-hour 90-mile Oahu-to-Kauai marathon from the rocky tip of Kaena. 

There was never an official road around Kaena Point, but it was possible to drive the route after the rail service was discontinued (the Kaena train was more or less a bust; it opened in 1899 and closed in the late 1940s, mostly from lack of use, but it didn't help that huge rocks would occasionally roll down from the cliff onto the tracks. Parts of the train bed itself fell into the ocean during the infamous Swell of 1969, and that was that for driving. Today, on either side, the road ends about 2.5 miles from the World War II pillbox at the tip of the point; in 1983, the entire area was designated a nature reserve, so there is no public access except by foot. 

If the swell is big and clean enough and the wind is aimed in the right direction, Kaena can produce waves of surreal size and power—bigger by far than Waimea or Makaha, possibly bigger than anywhere in the world. Gaping, cataclysmic lefts funnel down the north side of the point. Shifty rights swing out to sea on the west side. North Shore surfers in the '50s and '60s would sometimes drive out there to watch, or at least stop on their way to or from Makaha. Most days Kaena did not look rideable—but some days it almost did, and by the early 1960s Kaena Point was the most thought-about and talked-about unridden wave in the world. It was eventually ridden, but just tentatively, at nothing like full size. 

The "Kaena Challenge," as it was called for decades, was never fully met. And by the late 1980s, the big-wave horizon was shifting; first to Mexico and California, then Maui, then Tahiti and Europe. 

Kaena, on some level, is the last break of its kind. The sport moves so much faster than it used to, and we are now screens-on, always, watching each other, often in real time. We no longer leave things to the imagination, and Kaena Point was more an imagined surf break than a real one. That's what kept us on the hook for so long. You wanted to see what would happen if somebody actually tried to ride Kaena, but just listening to people talk about it was itself exciting and fun.  


As soon as I began surfing the North Shore, friends began to prime me for my first Kaena Point trip. It was a ritual, like a fraternal initiation, and the new kid on the block was invited to drive the car. His. 

After all the horror stories—with so much left to the imagination—I was scared. For my car and my life. Off we went. I eased through the opening miles of jagged rocks and twisty turns, amazed that tires weren’t blowing. We passed the tip of Kaena Point and another crucial test: the rocky undulating turn from the North Shore to the West Side. It’s the kind where you go up over a rock and look out into space—no road in sight—trying to remember your top turn because a wrong move could put a lava boulder through your axle. Ever present on our right was the blue Pacific, with a variety of waves, all ending in rocky disaster along the shore." 


A two-hour color movie on surfing will be presented by the Delta Tau Delta fraternity this Saturday evening, Feb. 21, at the Rec Center Auditorium, it was announced today. The film will start at 8 p.m. and admission will be 90 cents for students and $1.25 for general admission.

Produced by the Severson Studios of Southern California, the film will include shots of the 25-foot Makaha surf, the 50-foot Kaena Point waves, California surfing highlights, and such new surfing spots as Yokohama Bay and Waimea Bay.

Announcement in the Santa Barbara News-Press, Feb 18, 1959


Every year there is a rumor that someone is going to ride Kaena. Two years ago the rumor concerned Jim Fisher, a top big-wave rider and swimmer. This past year it was Buzzy Trent, but he assured me that he wouldn't attempt it. However, he did have some interesting ideas on how it might be done. Buzzy thought that a better-designed board might do the trick—a longer and faster board about 14' in length. The surfer might be towed into the wave by a boat, much like a water skier, and in this way he could drop to the bottom without the peak catching him. 

My own idea involves a helicopter with a 150' nylon line with a shock cord tied around the surfer's waist. By this arrangement, the surfer could be pulled into the wave just like the boat and water skier idea, but if he didn't make the drop or if the wave closed out, the helicopter could shoot ahead of the break, dragging the surfer forward and up into the air.

Fred Is fresh back from the world surfing championships in Peru—he finished fifth—and he feels strongly about two things in the surfing world:

1. Hawaii surfers should be the best.
2. Surf bums have got to go.

“We are No. 1, and we should work to stay on top," Fred said. “After all, Hawaii is where surfing was born. We’ve got the best waves."

On the subject of the clowns who clutter our beaches every summer, Fred has a simple solution: 

“Put them in jail. We’ve still got laws against vagrancy, haven’t we? People keep ashing the real surfers what to do about these characters. I mean the guys with the long bleached hair—some of them near it in snoods or even ponytails. They sleep on the beach and they think it's a big deal to throw beer cans around and swear at old ladies. I say, put them in jail. And in the meantime, the rest of us should cut them dead. Ignore them. They just want attention, anyway, and they can’t make it in the water.”

With the bums out of the way, the real surfers can concentrate on the big jobs ahead, such as conquering the surf off Kaena point.

“No one has ever tried to ride it," Fred says. “The waves are easily 40 feet. There’s no beach. It’s all coral and rocks and if you lose your board, forget it. One fellow is talking about having a helicopter drop him and then pick him up again if he makes it. But I think it will be a long time before anybody rides those waves. Kaena Point is the Mount Everest of surfing."

From "Jim Becker's Hawaii," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 23, 1965

 
Surf Kaena Point? Believe me, it’s completely unreal. The currents are unbelievably strong even on a calm day. The bloody fish [out there] are so muscle-bound from swimming against the current they curl up in the frying pan. To surf it successfully on a big day would be the equivalent of an astronaut landing on the moon—neither of which has been accomplished. It presents more of a challenge than the moon. In my opinion, [riding Kaena] would be almost impossible and foolhardy to attempt. One mistake, one wrong move, a split-second of poor judgement—and you're a loser.

Listen. Today [while diving at Kaena] I was in purple water—purple, mind you. I speared an 

 through the head and then watched as a barracuda knifed in from the velvet deep in a flash of speeding silver. Snap! He and the 

. Another battle of the sea climaxed. Man is nothing to nature. 

You know, I saw Kaena in January 1958 when it was breaking an unreal 50 foot. John Severson filmed it that day. I was in my prime and didn't do it. George Downing didn't do it, and in my book George is the best.

Kaena Point has yet to be seriously challenged. Buzzy Trent is the guy I first remember seriously considering the quest. For sure, Trent was one of the most formidable big-wave riders and watermen of his time. In fact, I doubt if they make them like Buzzy anymore. Crude style, perhaps, compared to today's big-wave riders, but you must consider the equipment available in his active era as compared to today's sophisticated designs. But Buzzy has definitely ridden as large a wave as anyone to this day. 

When he was riding for Dick Brewer, Trent began contemplating the requirements and possibilities of tackling Kaena. He knew you'd need a helicopter for getting out and, hopefully, back in. A breathing device good for three-to-five minutes for emergencies, and a surfboard you could put supreme confidence in. [Later in the decade], big waves lost their eminence and importance as such—it was no longer just riding the biggest waves, but what you were doing on the waves. Maneuverability and style became the most desirable factors, and for several years no one really cared about or considered the Kaena Point challenge.

Trent, meanwhile, was unable to identify with shortboards or long hair. He got caught up and lost in the change, and pretty much dropped out of the scene. 

Going back to the 1960s: Greg Noll reportedly made a special 13' gun with the idea of taking Kaena, and he indeed rode some very large waves at Makaha, Waimea, and Outside Pipeline, but for some reason never put it together for Kaena Point.

The next addition to the small list of challengers was George Downing who, reflecting the new attitudes of professionals within the sport, said he'd be happy to make an attempt on Kaena, but he wanted to make it worth his while. To hell with the ego-satisfying aspects of the ride; how about some cash for putting his life on the line? George wanted all necessary equipment provided and paid for, and somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 for performing the task. Alas, there were no takers, and the opportunity again slipped by.

The most recent word of a new challenge comes from Jim "Wildman" Neece, by far the youngest and perhaps the boldest yet.


Ninety-nine percent of people think it's a sure death trip. But I know it can be done. 

"The Contract: $12,500 for a 40-foot Wave,"


"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."

 Honolulu Star-Advertiser, January 8, 1974


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.


Ace Cool says he's going to ride Kaena Point. That puts him into the company of past famous talkers like Jim "Wildman" Neece, Mickey Dora, and several others, who've planned to ride it, threatened to ride it, or said they'd ridden it. One surfer drove out to the Point on a 40' day back in the 1960s to check it out; he reports finding Dora standing beside his car with his board, combing out his wet hair. "It's not bad," Mickey said.

It has been said that to ride Kaena Point is to die. You can't make it to the bottom before it hits you and rips you to shreds. Even if you do make the drop, you'll drown inside. And so on. 

"I want to do it for the money and because I'm crazy," says Ace Cool. "I'll be like Evil Knievel in the surf."

"He's going for it, for sure," says Warren Bolster, project photographer and amazed observer. "He's got real financial problems. I think he'd rather die than live in poverty like this. It's a desperation thing."

Cool says he's going for the big north swell, the wave that breaks off the point at 30-foot-plus and peels off towards Hong Kong. "I've been building up in big surf for five years," he says. "But [the TV show] 

 only pays $3,000 for a feat, and I'm not going till there's more money in it than that."

unattributed, Surfing magazine, August 1983. 


Ace Cool, who as you may have heard was to ride Huge Kaena Point and had sold the rights to several movie agencies, finally rode it this February. Well, it was only 25' and not the planned 35–40'. He can have it. I motored out to Kaena Point from Honolulu with Waimea surfer Jeff Johnson in order to ride it several years ago. Luckily it was only 15' so we rode a few. It is a very ominous place, with sheer lava cliffs on shore, and the only way out is to be picked up by a boat. They say the real Kaena Point doesn't start to work until the 30-40' range. So for whomever will ride it, we are still waiting.

From "Spring is Here, and so is Weather to Match," Rym Partridge, Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 26, 1984.

[Photos by Warren Bolster, Dave Skelton, Greg Noll, Don James, Bud Browne]

KAENA POINT: THE BIG-WAVE BREAK THAT GOT AWAY – A SHORT HISTORY

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