Makua Rothman grew up a little differently than most. For starters, he’s the son of the notorious Eddie Rothman, and he spent his youth getting comfortable in some of the biggest, scariest waves the North Shore has to offer. “I wasn’t born into the Brady Bunch,” he told us on set for the Headspace interview we did with him. As he grew up, big wave surfing came a little more naturally to him. “I was always a fat kid,” he told Ballin on a Budget. “[I was] always a little more heavy set, and the bigger waves just pushed me easier. I wasn’t a tail slide king as a kid, but I definitely was going to charge harder than the next kid.”
Makua isn’t just an incredible big wave surfer, either. Along with a BWT world championship, he also released an album and is working on his second. Music has been a part of his life since he can remember, and it’s rubbed off. “Music is part of my culture,” he explained. “For me to spread the aloha around the world, I can’t just do it in one aspect. Surfing and music go hand in hand.”
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