This article was published as "The Album of Conrad Canha," along with a half-dozen photos, in the May 1967 issue of Surfing. Canha was 34 years old.


A lot of people think I’m Hawaiian. I’m not. They mistake my name for ‘Kona." My whole family was born on Maui, but I'm actually full-blooded Portuguese.


No two waves are alike. The best waves I’ve ever caught were at Ala Moana. I’ve only been surfing there five years now; I should have started riding the place years ago. There is a bowl section there, and if your timing is right, you can get locked in. I mean, completely locked in. People can’t see you from shore. When I’m making a ride like that, there is a feeling there that I'm all alone, just me and the wave, and nobody around me. All you can see is just a little hole in front of you. It’s fantastic! I love Ala Moana.


I'm 34, and I've been surfing for 19 years. I started kind of late, when I was around 15. First I did a lot of bodysurfing and paipo surfing off Makapuu, then I this friend, Keilili, he put me on my first board, a plank. Now these kids here in Waikiki start at 10 years old, and by the time they're 15, they're terrific.


I went to Peru in ’56 and won both the hotdogging and big-wave contests there. I’ve been to the Mainland, to ’Frisco side, at a place called Seal Rock, I think it was. The water was so cold, I gave up surfing completely while I was there and came back to Hawaii. The longest plane ride of my life was to Peru, and the longest car ride of my life was from Newport Beach up to Oakland. Oh, man, the backaches. Here in Hawaii, I’ve surfed Maui, Kauai, and Kona.


I won the Makaha Contest in 1956. I've entered other meets, but I won the championship just that one year. I try, but you know, you can’t do it all the time. It’s great I won it once. Then that same year, Rabbit Kekai, myself, and five other people went to Peru for the big contest there, representing Hawaii. Out of 10 events, we won nine. In the tenth one I was the only guy from our team to qualify. It was the event where you have to paddle out to a marker, catch a wave, and come in without standing up. I came in fourth place. I’m no paddler, I’m a surfer. They also had me in a nine-mile paddleboard race. At that time, Felipe Pomar was young and really tremendous. He came in right behind Rabbit. Rabbit had a racing board, and Felipe had just a regular stock board. I came in fourth again. Those guys left me in the middle of the ocean, and that’s no place to be.



I drive for the movies when they come over and film in Hawaii. I drive camera trucks, sound trucks, whatever they assign me. For the last seven years, that’s all I’ve been doing. I get a lot of time off to surf too. Yeah, it's bitchin’. I work three months, then draw unemployment the rest of the year and have a great time.

I remember an incident with the actor James Whitmore. We were making a movie on Kauai, and he walked one day when all the guys were sitting around playing cards. He came up and said, "Who’s Conrad?" I told him I was Conrad, and he said, "Would you mind standing up? I want a picture of you and me, and would like to get your autograph." That really shocked me. Whitmore told me his boy surfed, and he'd mentioned my name, and said he wanted a picture of me. After that all the guys kept kidding me and asking me for my autograph.


I've been doing a lot of hunting lately, for wild pig. We use dogs and a knife. The dogs trap the pig and then you have to come over the top of the dogs and jab the pig. No gun, no nuthin’. Fun! It's real fun! Actually, the first couple of times it was scary because you don’t know where the pig’s going to come up. The hardest part is jumping in with the dogs and poking the pig. It really gets you in shape. I've been six times already this year, and I got five pigs. Then after we have bitchin’ parties, with lots to eat.


I remember when Walter Hoffman and his group first came to the Islands. They stayed in a tent, an Arab tent, with Henry Preece and some other Hawaiians. This was in '53, around there. I was about 20 and had a black surfboard. We went out surfing one morning when it was about fifteen feet. By noon, the waves were tremendous, closing out. There were sets pushing twenty or bigger. Once when I went across the bowl, the whole thing came down on me. Walt took a picture of me covered completely, and I came out standing on one leg. I remember that very well.


Guys nowadays are good surfers, but the way they conduct themselves in the water is real bad. There are always more waves, so you don’t have to hog them for yourself. When you've been surfing for a number of years, you can afford to let a few waves go by. A lot of people can’t understand how I catch a wave by myself. But I figure if you're courteous to others, they will be nice to you, so when they see you on a wave they won’t get in your way.


I think the sport could end up in the Olympics. Maybe not in our generation, but in the next generation. As for me, I’ll be surfing until the doctor says I can’t go in the water anymore. That’s just my life. The ocean is my life.

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