Waimea Bay Beach

This guide to Waimea Bay Beach in Honolulu traces the November 1957 morning that turned this once-shunned surf spot into the birthplace of big wave surfing, and the lifeguard Eddie Aikau who took the tower here a decade later, credited with saving over five hundred swimmers without a single drowning on his watch. In 1978, Aikau paddled off alone into open ocean swells after the voyaging canoe Hokulea capsized far offshore, seeking help for its crew. It set off the largest air and sea search in Hawaiian history.