From the abject failure that was the first Makaha International Surfing Championships in 1953 (flat-water paddling events took place; wave-riding heats canceled due to lack of surf), the event quickly grew to become the biggest prize in all of surfing—the unofficial world championships. Thousands drove out to the West Side to watch the multi-day event. Local papers gave it frontpage coverage. The waves, on occasion, were incredible. ABC-TV, starting in 1964, presented the Makaha contest to millions on 

. Sure, there were lots of mostly-valid complaints about the event. But for a dozen or more years, Makaha was a surfing fortress, an institution, a given.

Having just spent all of January going through every scrap of Makaha material I could get my hands on in order to post Makaha International pages for each of the 19 events (1953 - 1973), my semieducated opinion is that the contest was actually pretty solid right up to 1967. Two things happened before that, however. First, hotdog legend and frustrated Makaha competitor Dewey Weber, in response to the 1965 event, wrote a SURFER article whose less-than-subtle headline reads "The Makaha Contest is the Worst!" Second, and not coincidentally, 1965 brought the debut Duke Invitational, at Sunset Beach, which was a full blockbuster—big surf, progressive riding, streamlined one-day-only format, bang, boom, done. Maybe on purpose, maybe not, the Duke seemed to solve every issue plaguing the Makaha contest, and this included directing the surf world's attention to the North Shore. In '53, when Makaha launched, the West Side was Surfing Vahalla. But things had changed, and now Sunset, Pipeline, and the rest of the Murder's Row of breaks on the North Shore had become the sport's dramatic center. Apart from those who lived there, Makaha was now by and large a pleasant afternoon detour.

Still, the '66 Makaha contest was great, and the '67 event, too, was well-run and exciting. A behind-the-scenes moment that year, however, was the true beginning of the end for Makaha. As reported in the 

, a select group of eight surfers refused to participate in a made-for-TV Makaha event, to be held directly following the Makaha International. ABC's logic behind the add-on contest was sound: it cost a lot of money to fly a crew to Hawaii to cover Makaha. Why not film a second contest, and make it a two-for-one deal? They'd done it the year before, in fact. But the two 1966 Makaha contests, presented within a few weeks of each other, were confusing to viewers, and the surfers themselves felt the add-on contest detracted from the 

 event. (Hemmings won the '66 Makaha International, while Nat won the TV contest; Hemmings was understandably pissed off that a lot of TV viewers thought Nat was the Makaha champ.) In a remarkable show of solidarity, the surfers chosen for the '67 TV event voted at the eleventh hour to not paddle out. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that was both the last time ABC covered Makaha and the last time until the South Africa ASP boycott in 1985 that pro surfers collectively showed any kind of backbone in the face of the sports' competitive powers-the-be.

Anyway, Makaha lost its TV contract for '68, and was all but ignored by the surf media. Ditto the '69 event. The 1970 contest was commemorated, except that's not quite the right word, in a short but snide 

 cameo, in which the film narrator calls it a "surf carnival" and accuses contest organizers of ripping off the competitors. (Onscreen, meanwhile, young Larry Bertlemann rips it up during his Makaha heat. The idea that the contest is a showcase for surfers like Bertlemann ought to carry some weight here but, this being the early '70s, it doesn't.)

The 1971 Makaha contest either wasn't held, or wasn't finished, or the results have vanished from the public record.

The 1972 Makaha contest was a last hurrah of sorts, and if nothing else I love the fact that local legend Buffalo Keaulana placed third, just as he did in 1957.

On December 20, 1973, the Honolulu Advertiser ran a sad, short article on Page Two of the sports section titled "No '73 Makaha Meet".

The Makaha International Surfing Championships, once the best known and most respected meet in the sport, will not be held this year. The cancellation of this year's event ends 20 straight years the meet has been held at Makahas winter surf around Christmas.

The Waikiki Surf Club, sponsor of the meet, decided to scrap the event this year, according to WSC’s Moku Froiseth. who said the group may hold it again in 1974.

Over the last few years, the lucrative professional meets [on the North Shore] have taken the spotlight away from the Makaha International.

A 1974 Makaha meet was indeed held, and while "International" was kept in the title it was in fact a small barely-noticed locals-only affair. The North Shore was meanwhile hosting the Duke, the Pipeline Masters, and the Smirnoff, the IPS world pro tour was on deck, and that was pretty much that.

Quietly and with no fanfare, 21 years after it began, the Makaha contest was over.

POSTMORTEM: THE MAKAHA INTERNATIONAL SURFING CHAMPIONSHIPS, 1953 - 1973

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