"THE CONTRACT: $12,500 FOR A 40-FOOT RIDE," HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN (1973)

Ken Kobayashi's article ran in the December 9, 1973, edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. This version has been slightly edited.

* * *

A 21-year-old surfer plans to become the first person to ride the monster winter waves at Kaena Point next month, and get paid for it. Jim Neece, also known as “Wildman” in surfing circles, has signed a contract with a California film company to ride a wave at least 40 feet tall during the month of January.

Neece says he already has been paid $1,250 for signing the 11-page contract. And within a year after his ride he will have received $12,500 and 10% of the net profits generated by the company's movie based on his feat. The film company is KR Productions, based in Carmichael, Calif., and headed by William Roseberry Jr. and John Krisik.

No one has ever tried to ride the giant Kaena Point waves, which reportedly reached as high as 60 feet in December 1969. However, Neece will be well-prepared. He plans to be dropped into the water with his 12-foot board by one of two helicopters which will film the event. He’ll wear miniature air tanks strapped to a harness around his chest and inflatable balloons on a belt around his waist.

In case of a wipeout, Neece says the tanks will give him five to eight minutes of breathing air. The balloons will inflate when he pulls straps to help him float to the surface.

In order to earn the money, Neece says he must drop down the face of the wave, which will be taller than a four-story building, slide across the wave and end up standing.

The daredevil surfer plans to ride the swells generated by storms far to the north as they wrap around Kaena. He will ride the right-breaking waves on the Waianae side of the point.

Neece, a regularfoot surfer, will have the advantage of facing the wall of the wave. He figures if he beats the breaking white water, he’ll surf away from the rocks, toward the open ocean and out of danger

“Ninety-nine percent of people think it's a sure death trip,” says Neece, born in San Pedro, Calif., and a Hawaii resident for six years. “But I know it can be done.”

Neece admits he hopes his feat makes him famous, although he already has shown his surfing skill in winning the Waimea Bay Professional Surfing Contest last year. ‘‘It would blow people's minds. Everybody in the world would know it, and I’d get a lot of money,” says the Kahuku high school graduate.

“There's all kinds of reasons for doing it. But the main thing is that it never has been done before,” said the surfer of 11 years. “Phil Edwards rode Banzai Pipeline first and now he’s a legend. Guys like him made a name for themselves. I don’t want to be known as a beach bum or a surf freak. I want to do something that’s worthwhile [and] historical.”

To many surfers, riding Kaena indeed will be the greatest single feat in the sport. According to surfing great George Downing, Kaena Point waves have acquired a legendary status since a surfer in the mid-60s boasted he could ride those waves. That person never did—he was out to publicize himself. But the mystique of riding the monster waves so close to the rocky shore started. And surfers have since talked about the day when someone might do it

What makes Kaena so dangerous is not only the waves’ size—any spill on a 40-footer can cause serious injury or even death. But a surfer will also have to be aware of the shallow water the waves break over and the jagged rocks on the shore. Neece, for instance, estimates his takeoff will be only 75 yards from the lava rocks.

Although Neece says he is eating “good foods” and surfing more, he figures the most important part of preparing for the ride is his mental outlook. “If you’re going to eat it,” he says, “you’re going to die no matter how good a shape you’re in. But I don’t think about that. My mind isn’t on that kind of jazz. You have to think positive. If you don’t, something WILL happen.”

There are those, of course, who tell Neece that he’s crazy, and he’ll never make it. “I tell them, 'Don’t bother me',” says Neece. “You’ll always have people who try to bum you out. But when you do it, all of a sudden you have 5,000,000 friends beating down your door. Some guys are just jealous, but those who really know Kaena Point are for it. They really want to see me pull it off—Jose Angel, Buzzy Trent, Peter Cole.”

Neece psychs himself for the ride by imagining himself on waves as he watches them break at Pipeline or Waimea. “I put a teeny surfer on the wave, and I say, 'That’s what it’s going to be like.' It’ll be fantastic. I know I’ll be going so fast, like jumping off a telephone pole, straight down. I know I’ll feel damn good when I get out of the water, and probably for the rest of my life."

[Photo by Dave Skelton]