Which is like being called “Neurotic Matt” on the island of Manhattan. Luke, by the way, is known as “Casual Luke.” In Hawaii. Throughout the frenzy, what everyone remembers is Luke remaining calm and focused.
Luke saw Kala dragged out of the ocean, concussed and bleeding, and it was Luke who put the oxygen mask on his friend’s face. Just a week before the Eddie, one of his childhood best friends, Kala Grace, had an almost-fatal accident at nearby Pipeline. The violence underwater regularly cracks ribs, tears shoulders from sockets, and breaks backs, as the force of the ocean rag-dolls surfers beneath the waves, sometimes for a minute at a time.Īs both a surfer and lifeguard, Luke knows what the ocean is capable of. For a surfer, wiping out can mean getting dragged across a bed of sharp coral. The powerful riptide can render even the strongest swimmers helpless. When that energy meets the shallow ocean floor, it alchemizes into those tremendous hollow tubes that contain the possibility of transcendence-and the possibility of death. Waimea is uniquely positioned to the northwest, where it apprehends swell energy from winter storms that roil throughout the Pacific. Sea levels fell and rose with the ice ages, eventually drowning the low land at the mouth of that river valley, creating the one-of-one crescent that is Waimea Bay, where, in 1957, big-wave surfing was born. Over time, the water carved through those mountains, forming a river valley. On the island now called Oahu, primordial volcanoes spewed molten magma, slowly constructing a verdant mountain range. Then Luke got on his 10-foot gun and paddled out into the raging sea.įorces had been conspiring for over 2 million years to create that special day. He grabbed his board and ran down to hug his family, who had arrived to watch. Competing in the Eddie was his lifelong dream, this North Shore kid who first got into the ocean at three days old and onto a surfboard at seven months. He was surprised when he started to get a little teary-eyed. He retreated inside the lifeguard stand, where he slipped out of his work uniform and into his white competition jersey. When he had finally worked past the throng, the bay opened before him and the undulating ocean revealed itself for the first time that day. Once his feet touched the sand, Luke started picking his way through a mass of tightly packed bodies just to get to his station at the lifeguard tower. On the beach and along the cliffs that line Waimea Bay, some 50,000 spectators would soon squeeze together for a chance to see greatness, to witness ineffable bravery, and to take part in the grand human tradition of watching some guys (and a few women) do truly crazy shit.
The Eddie forges champions: Kelly Slater, John John Florence, and Bruce Irons have all won in the past. To be invited to ride them means being one of the 40 most-esteemed surfers in the world, as chosen by a committee of your peers.
But the waves produced during the Eddie are perhaps the most sacred on earth. Then he hopped out and took off running for Waimea.Įven on an ordinary day, surfing is imbued with the mystical, every wave hinging on chance and elemental collision-a storm in Japan will create a swell thousands of miles away in Hawaii. He kissed Natalia and told her to take the wheel. His family was with him, so Luke made a split-second decision. But no matter how much they hustled, rent always seemed to be due, groceries got pricier, the gas tank needed filling, and the medical bills piled up. His girlfriend, Natalia, was already working three gigs. He was 27 years old, with two small children.
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