Eddie Aikau

 

By Joey 

         Your about to find out about the coolest surfer, the man who saved 500 people, the real Poseidon. His name is Eddie Aikau. He was born on May 4th, 1946, in Kahului Maui as the third child of his family. They were living poorly on the streets. As a kid he loved surfing and he surfed anytime he could and sometimes even Dearing school. When he was old enough, he got a job at a pineapple factory and as soon as he could he bought his own surfboard. He lived on Oahu Island, the third largest island in Hawaii. After that he got his first job as a lifeguard, and he covered the whole north side of the island. Eddie saved over 500 people as a lifeguard without letting anyone die at all. He was saving people in 25-foot waves. He died on March 12th at 32 years old. 

 

One day he joined a reenactment crew to go on the journey taken by Polynesian migrants between the Hawaiian and Tahitian islands. They would go in a wooden boat navigating by the sun and stars. Soon they hit a giant storm. The boat flipped over, and they were in the water. Eddie volunteered to swim to shore. Luckily, they had a surfboard, so he used that as a raft, and he took off his life jacket because it was too clunky. The others were rescued. There was a search crew looking for Eddie, but he was never seen again. Scientists think that the waves got up to 50 feet in that storm. 

 

To this day, Hawaii holds a surfing computation called The Eddie every year to celebrate Eddie Aikau. Only the top surfers in the world do it because they only hold it when the waves are about 20 to 40 feet tall. They include Denten Miyamura, Keown Downing, Clyde Aikau, Bruce Irons, Noah Johnsen, Kelly Slater, and Ross Clarke. Eddie could not be stopped and even the greatest people looked up to him.