Waves of 50 feet are expected on Oahu’s north shore today, including dangers after a San Francisco tourist was killed in high surf at Shark’s Cove last week.
Lifeguards at Waimea Bay used yellow tape and a megaphone to keep spectators away from the pounding shore, where people were buzzing about the news that today’s Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational was “a go,” depending on the surf.
Organizers will make the official call this morning when tens of thousands of spectators are expected to descend on the North Shore.
The world’s premier surfing competition – named after the famous waterman who was the North Shore’s original lifeguard and is said to have saved more than 500 people during his career – is only held when the wave height in the bay is expected to be consistently at least 40 feet.
“The Eddie” has only been held 10 times before, most recently in January 2023, when North Shore lifeguard Luke Shepardson took the title, and before that in 2016.
The city’s Department of Ocean Safety is urging “extreme caution” along affected coastlines due to “extremely dangerous and life-threatening” conditions.
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“Lifeguards are warning anyone wishing to watch the big surf to stay well away from the shoreline, away from any rocky shorelines and that only expert surfers should enter the water,” Ocean Safety said in a statement after Wednesday’s death.
In anticipation of dangerous conditions and huge crowds, city officials announced parking restrictions around Waimea Bay and increased first responder staffing along the North Shore. Special TheBus routes have also been set up to encourage people not to drive to the area.
The National Weather Service on Saturday extended the high surf warning for the north and west coasts of most islands until 6 a.m. Monday. Forecasters expect surf to increase to 40 to 50 feet today along the north coasts of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Maui before gradually subsiding tonight and early this week.
Today, surf on the west coast of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu and Molokai is forecast to increase to 25 to 35 feet, with surf of 8 to 12 feet along the west coast of the Big Island.
The Weather Service warned the public to “expect ocean waters to flow over beaches, coastal banks and lava flows, presenting the potential for impacts to coastal properties and infrastructure, including roads.”
Hazards include strong coastal and rip currents at most beaches and large breaking waves and strong currents at harbor entrances and canals.
“Stay away from the coastline along the affected coasts. Be prepared for road closures. Delay entering or exiting channels affected by high surf until surf subsides,” the weather service advised.
On Wednesday, Ocean Safety lifeguards entered the surf in 6- to 20-foot waves to bring an unconscious 42-year-old man to shore on a personal watercraft. Paramedics later pronounced him dead. The Honolulu Medical Examiner did not immediately have a cause of death but identified him as San Francisco tourist Guo-Chen Peng.
Pro surfer Mark Healey, 43, of Pupukea, will compete in his fifth “Eddie” today, even after a 10-foot wave at Waimea Bay broke his 8-foot Ron Meeks board in half Friday.
When asked what happened, Healey replied: “Wrong place, wrong time.”
“It is incredibly dangerous and not even safe for experts,” he added.
During his surfing career, Healey estimated that more than 50 of his boards were broken by big waves.
Waimea surfers agreed Friday that the morning’s biggest waves were 15 feet high, measured “Hawaiian style” — from the back of the swell rather than the front — and quite dangerous.
Ethan Kobayashi, 19, of Palolo, sat out Friday’s surf session with an injured left knee after it was twisted by a wave.
“Some people underestimate how strong the waves are,” he said.
Several surfers wore helmets and inflatable vests that shoot them to the surface if the force of a wave — or series of waves — holds them back for too long.
Even people who ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ on shore run the risk of being swept out to sea and caught in pounding surf and deadly currents.
“The lifeguard says some people are getting too close to the water,” Kobayashi said after another announcement from the lifeguard.
He was sitting on a bench, safely away from the surf, which was 25 feet high in Waimea Bay last week.
Lifeguards can’t force anyone to stay out of dangerous waters, but they do their best to warn those who look like they don’t know what they’re doing.
The day they recovered Peng’s body in Shark’s Cove, North Shore lifeguards conducted an estimated 3,000 “preventative actions,” as they are known, to keep beachgoers safe and eight rescues, according to the Ocean Safety Department.
Jeff Pike, a visitor from Akron, Ohio, spent the first day of his vacation with his wife and three children in Waimea Bay on Friday. During the big wave season, Pike said, “we read that you can’t swim at all on this side of the island.”
Surfer Ryder Jalbert, a 21-year-old math and psychology student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said, “Listen to the lifeguards. Everything they say applies.”
Kathryn Cahill, 44, and her husband, Kawika Cahill, 45, both surf, but only in “non-big Waikiki waves,” she said. “This is too big for us. If it is 1.5 to 2 meters, I don’t go out.”
So they drove from their home in Diamond Head to Waimea just to watch – and to watch safely.
“You never turn your back on the ocean,” Kawika Cahill said. “And stay out of the water if you are not experienced.”
Ana Dagostini, a 12-year-old surfer from Brazil, braved her first Waimea waves wearing an inflatable vest and helmet as her mother, Maira, captured her on video from the shore through a long lens.
“We came to Hawaii to surf,” said Ana’s father, Benito, who watched from the shore after twisting his knee while surfing.
“It’s not the waves,” he said. “The current is strong.”
Dane Teves, a 36-year-old architect from Kailua, stepped out of the surf and walked past bystanders watching the waves, telling them to be alert for “the big ones coming up and overwhelming you.”
Tom Tengan, a 62-year-old visitor from Fountain Valley, California, and a 1985 UH graduate, sat on shore with his wife, their three daughters, son and son-in-law – and nothing but respect for the waves.
“They look extremely dangerous,” Tengan said. “It’s humbling to see.”
Sydney Steddick, a 24-year-old surfer from Waialua, rested on a towel and watched her boyfriend, Finn Armstrong, take on the famous surf break.
The winter waves are too big for Steddick, so she likes surfing in smaller sets.
She called the sport “the coolest experience. You really feel the power of nature.”