LOVE STORY

Perched right on the point at Sunset Beach on the North Shore of O’ahu, the day comes early to the house where Mason Ho lives. With a legend of a father, a top female surfer and surfing’s most popular streamer all under one roof, the sound of wax scraping across surfboards can be heard before the first cock crows. And although many days pass in the same pattern for this famed family, this day is different. Because the bay is breaking. Waimea Bay. And the Eddie Aikau invitational is on and father and son are expected in the line-up. With father Michael one of the only contestants who had a close relationship with Eddie, the expectations from father Mike and son Mason are soaring. Michael knows his son is playing hurt, Mason is suffering from a deep groin injury that could cast a shadow over his day. But ever irrepressible, Mason is up and at ‘em, fixing his double leash to his ten foot spear. The rumble of the biggest waves out on the reef at Sunset Beach make the plates rattle in the cupboard and now and then and during the even larger ones, father and son shoot each other nervous smiles. Honor is potentially ahead. The greatest honor in Hawaiian surfing, a win at the Eddie. Both Mike and Mason are contenders, father and son, an extraordinary set of circumstances that the whole island loves to watch unfold. The eastern horizon is just blushing pink as they load their giant guns on to the roof of the station wagon. One board each. Do or die. Coco waves from the balcony, calls good luck. Good luck Daddy! Mason’ injury is so bad he needs to lay down in the back as his old man turns the key in the ignition and the day really begins.

The Kam highway is jammed, of course, seems the whole island has come out to watch. Knowing the berms and puddles that can be handled on the side of the road, Mike makes it to the bay as if he’s had a police escort. The large crowd is milling around and everybody is both awestruck and plenty nervous about the conditions, spectators and surfers alike. Every giant gun on the North Shore has been slid out of the rafters and from under houses and they tower over everyone like totem poles in every color of the rainbow. One can read the entire history of big wave surfing in them, from early battle scarred models to modern nitro burning boards.

A set of black mountains approach the bay and at first a silence falls. Then the hoots and the hollers erupt as the gargantuan set of waves rear up and start feathering, then the whole crowd goes nuts as the waves, all four of them, stack up and close out the bay. The lifeguards gulp and gawk and laugh and start up their jet skis. The sound of the skis mixing with the roar of the surf, adding to the menace and intent of the day. Mason Ho has heard all this from the back of the car and he clambers out to see things for himself. His father has wrestled their boards off the top of the car and has them laid out like giant marlin in the grass of the parking lot. Their boards look comically big, like oversized surfboard sculptures, but both Mike and Mason know they are going to need every inch of them.

Mason and Mike man up and heft their boards and head over to the competitors area where a safety briefing is taking place. Every big wave hot shot in the world is there, only half listening, knowing the drill, knowing that if you get in trouble at the bay that the Jet ski becomes the greatest invention mankind has ever produced. Keeping his spirits high, Mason finds himself next to Clyde Aikau, who could take the air out of a stadium with his aura of nobility. After all, not only is he related to the king who used to rule this bay, but this whole thing is in honor of his fallen older brother. Keeping it light, Mason turns to Clyde and makes a nervous joke about the size of the waves. Clyde does not laugh, he only turns his gaze on Mason wordlessly. Mason shrinks a bit, but holds his ground. This is when Clyde let’s him have it. Telling him that the day is no joke, and that Mason better get his head right and get it right quick or Clyde was going to get it right for him. Mason listens and takes it and turns his eyes toward the surf as another close-out set rumbles through the bay.

Paddling out in his heat Mason knows that with his injury he doesn’t have much more than two waves in him. He has one plan. Find the one wave no one else wanted and go for it. Reaching the line-up he and the whole crowd sweep up and over another close-out set. Having reset his mind on the day, Mason is doing his best to just stay cool and move with the rhythm of the giant waves. No hurry now, he thinks, just breath it in. Twenty minutes later and with no waves ridden and his injury flaring up, Mason’s patience cracks and he paddles deep and inside of everybody. What the hell, he thinks, maybe the swell has peaked. He finds out forty seconds later how wrong he is. The horizon goes black, the biggest set of the day approaches. An absolutely inhuman set of waves. Mason starts scratching out to get over them. But just then he sees one man turn around and start paddling for the first one. Their eyes meet. It’s Clyde Aikau. Mason knows why Clyde is paddling for the first one, it’s going the be the cleanest one and the bay is going to be a maelstrom after it passes. Mason keeps paddling out, but for some reason he cannot keep his eyes off Clyde. And this is when Clyde stops paddling and sits up on his board and looks directly at Mason. Mason stops paddling and sits up on his board too. And Clyde nods at Mason and Mason spins his big board around and starts paddling for the wave everyone else is trying to get over. Taking off late, it’s more like the wave catches Mason than the other way around. Dropping in is like jumping out of a airplane. Mason fights his way halfway down the face and the whole crowd is screaming, this could be a winning wave. And that is the moment Mason hits some chop from a rescue ski and goes flying off into oblivion and prepares to die.

Ten minutes later Mason is back outside the break, rattled and wary. His eyes meet Clyde’s again. A moment. Then Clyde smiles one of his rare smiles and nods his head. And in that moment, right there, Mason Ho looks outside for another bomb, falling in love with Waimea Bay all over again.

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