Surfing icons stay in Hawai'i
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Surf legend Greg Noll rode what may have been the largest wave ever paddled in Makaha in 1969. The date was mentioned repeatedly last night during the Hawaiian Island Vintage Surf Auction at the Blaisdell, aficionados rolling their eyes upward and gesturing as Noll's monster wave climbed even higher in memories and imaginations.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Noll had said it had a face the size of two 18-wheel tractor-trailer rigs, stacked one upon the other, with a bit of room to spare for a surfer.
Nancy and Bob Bermel, of Olinda, Maui, check out surfboards once owned by the legendary Duke Kahanamoku. The boards, along with other surf memorabilia, were up for auction yesterday at the Hawaiian Islands Vintage Surf Auction held at the Blaisdell Center Galleria.
Collectors, sizing up the boards Hawai'i's surfers had ridden into history and assessing old issues of sports magazines that featured surfer exploits, could see and consider buying an oil painting of Noll's ride, signed by artist Lynne Boyer and by Noll, as Noll himself repeated the story.
They could also meet surfer and board designer Joe Quigg, who shaped his first board with his father's saw at the age of 5 in 1929. Or Ricky Grigg, a Noll contemporary who now teaches oceanography at the University of Hawai'i, or surfer-turned-state senator Fred Hemmings who, after losing three toes to a lawn mower, said he had to learn to "Hang 7."
They also bought vintage surfing mementos honoring Hawai'i's early surfers at record prices.
Although the auction was attended by collectors from around the world, members of auction producer Randy Rarick's staff said top items were purchased by Hawai'i residents.
A surf board used by Duke Kahanamoku sold for $15,000. A Pacific Systems Homes 1930s surfboard, decorated with what would become a symbol of the Nazi party, sold for $18,200.
The oil painting showing Noll's wave at Makaha sold for $3,900.
Between pauses to autograph surf magazines and posters, Noll said his contemporaries sometimes remind him that the remarkable thing about the Makaha event was not the size of the wave, but the fact that he had managed to stay on it now for more than three decades.
