After nearly a week of searching, the U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for Alec “Ace Cool” Cooke, who went missing while surfing Waimea Bay. Photos: Sean Davey
After 59-year-old big wave legend Alec “Ace Cool” Cooke went missing while surfing last week, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a call to search the surrounding beaches of Oahu’s North Shore. After days of scouring the coast near Waimea Bay with no signs of Cooke, the Coast Guard has officially suspended the search, assuming that he died at sea.
When Cooke didn’t return from a session at Waimea, his girlfriend reported him missing on Wednesday, October 28th. Search personnel found his truck parked near Saints Peter and Paul Mission Church on Kamehameha Highway with the keys still inside and his dog nearby. Cooke’s board was found near the Waimea river mouth on Thursday.
Cooke allegedly paddled out on Tuesday evening in an attempt to avoid crowds. “He paddles out with a big glow stick on his back and he’s got a light and basically he goes out at nighttime in big surf,” Cooke’s longtime friend Rich Jensen told Hawaii News Now. “Because nobody else is out there, so I guess he’s got it all to himself.”
The North Shore has been experiencing large surf recently, thanks to some early season swells.
“As with any missing persons search we saturated the area in an attempt to locate Mr. Cooke, but pending further developments, we have decided to suspend the active search,” said Cmdr. Arex Avanni, deputy commanding officer at Coast Guard Sector Honolulu. “The Pacific Ocean is very dangerous, especially when we have heavy surf conditions. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family.”
Known for pushing the limits of big wave surfing, Cooke was like a surfing daredevil. He pioneered surfing the outer reefs of Oahu’s North Shore. And he famously dropped into massive Pipeline via helicopter in 1985. Losing Cooke is a devastating hit not only to Hawaii, but the international surfing community as a whole; he will surely go down as a legend of the sport.
