Sunday, December 6, 2009 North

Fred & Sonia Nichols reporting

Parko Takes the Second Jewel

A great story has suspense, builds history and is very sexy…at the 0’Neill World Cup of Surfing second jewel of the Vans Triple Crown. Two Hawaiians(H) and two Australians  (A) entered the finals on the last day of contest, Sunny Garcia (H), Dusty Payne (H), Joel Parkinson (Parko) (A) and Mick Fanning (A).

The battle was set with some of the largest surf in the history of this competition with heavy to handle 15-25’ out over the reef. Three minutes into the 35 minute final Sunny Garcia established top rating 9.4.7 with his jarring barrel ride and clear through the bowl with his neat and clean exit.  Here at Sunset the bowl – surf center- is deep and steep making wide eyes of any surfer… As the TV stations inventoried the crowd Sunny seemed the clear winner.

These gentlemen settled into their slots and with 13 minuets left into the contest the line up looked like Dusty Payne in 4^th place needing over 12.4 points to get into the lead, Mick Fanning in third with a last wave coming in at 4.83, Joel Parkinson in 2^nd place scoring a 7.0 wave with lots of speed, carving on the high rails and Sunny Garcia’s high 9.4 wave and 3.4 on the low side. Even Sunny could not improve on his lowest wave bottoming out on some and some way too-early wave collapsing around him.

Despite repeated efforts by all on the field no upset foreseen and 2:10 min remaining the biggest sets of the final were visible. We moved into 1Min 15 sect looking to the left we see red shirted Dusty Payne making a last attempt looking for a combo ride and ending in the white.  55 seconds and high in the West in yellow (Parko) carves into the crest, picks up a barrel with secure a stand followed by clean exit and entrance into a second barrel emerging with winning points - pulling through a remarkable upset.

Parko makes history as the second man to win this contest three times he ties with legendary Hawaiian Michael Ho.  As for the sexy, well the pictures tell that part of the story.

 The Eddie Aikau Now Holding, North Shore,Oahu

By Fred & Sonia Nichols 12/3/2009

As the last of the almost three score of the worlds most courageous surfers emerged to shore the rain started growing in intensity as a testament that the opening ceremony for the 25^thQuicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau had concluded and the celebration was underway. Under tents guests and major name surfers gathered for food and surf talk enveloped by live music and the ascent of night. Who cares about the rain! 

We were privileged and blessed to be present among the royalty of big wave surfing for this inspiring and sacred opening ceremony. They sat together, in a circle and with their board. tips facing center. We spotted many Eric Arakawa boards. They called each name, beginning with six no longer among us and continuing through names that appear in any surfing magazine, brothers who made the glossy pages while surfing Mavericks last week, another from France, several Aussies, a surfer from Chile and another from Spain.  Names like Slater, Carroll, and Garcia on and on. Several men who have made this ceremony for all of its 25 years, others who have surfed the actual contest and won…this was a revered moment and everyone knew it.

Kahu Billy Mitchell, a Hawaiian holy man, blessed them and all of us. He spoke of the spirit of the gathering. The magic of the man for whom this place was so special, a man claimed by

Among them along the circle sat Eddie’s brother,

The Hokule’a, the ’70’s voyaging canoe where Eddie last served, awaited this group of surfers. So significant as this very canoe  played a significant role in Eddies life. It was spectacular for us and it to be here, on this 25^th anniversary. As the story goes, when this canoe ran into trouble in foul weather on its voyage to Tahiti, it was Eddie who volunteered to paddle his board on the rough seas back to

).

They gathered their boards, now blessed, wearing presented lei’s and holding ti leaves, they entered at the shore at Waimea for the long paddle out. Reunited with each other and along the back of the Hokule’a they hold hands and form a paddle circle and in quiet prayer send their gifts along the waves.

We found ourselves talking to Dino, a part-time Los Angeles County Lifeguard for the last 32 years, who’s watches out over Sapphire and the Avenues, (

The nature of today serves to remind me about the measure of a man that can have such a profound affect to those who love and lost him, who continue this legacy in his name to remind us about heroism, the nature of the sea and that which speaks to this men who take to it, to surf it, to ride it to become so much a part of the essence of  “Ha” –  Breath of Life ,“wa” –the water and “i’i ” – the eel or god.

Quicksilver has sponsored “The Eddie’, the worlds largest big wave surf contest, for these 25 years and this year Monster entered as a secondary sponsor. Competitors remain on standby from today to Feb. 23 should this famous contest take place. Word about town is that this Saturday or Monday will be the day.

God bless water men everywhere.