OUR HONOLULU
Big-wave surfers owe debt to high tech

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

It came as a surprise to learn that one secret of surfing the Eddie Aikau Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational is electronic surveillance. The password is "Buoy 5101."

"If you have a computer, you can tie into the buoy system and predict the surf," said George Downing, legendary big-wave surfer and the contest director who decides if the tournament will go on or not.

He said Buoy 5101 "is like having somebody sitting on a surfboard 200 miles northwest of Hawai'i who picks up the phone and says, 'There's a 20-foot wave coming.' "

Downing explained that the buoy measures the swells and transmits the information to Our Honolulu.

Sitting at his computer, Downing makes up his mind whether the waves will be big enough to hold the prestigious tournament. It is held only if the surf is 20 feet or higher. That's happened five times in the past 16 years.

"This year, I knew by 2 a.m. what the surf would be like by 3 p.m., that we'd have 20-foot waves at Waimea (last Monday)."

He said it takes two hours to put everything in place on Waimea beach; judges' stand, nine judges, three spotters to identify the surfers and a water patrol to keep the crowd back.

"We don't advertise the meet; don't even call the press," he said. "It would create bumper-to-bumper traffic on the North Shore."

I asked him how the surfers — invited from around the world — know the tournament is on. "Most of them were in Hawai'i already," he said. "The coconut wireless is all over."

This is a far cry from the late 1940s when Downing and a few others, riding redwood boards, popularized big-wave surfing by hitchhiking to the North Shore. He learned about fiberglass in California in 1948 when he broke the tip of his board on the Malibu Pier. A man on the beach repaired it with fiberglass.

He was Bob Simmons, who pioneered lightweight boards in his garage.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.