The event is named after Eddie, but the most revered and prestigious surf event in the world is not about Eddie Aikau, the man. And according to stories told by past friends and family and present day Eddies, he wouldn’t want it to be.
It is, instead, about the legend’s outsized spirit and the sense of community it continues to hold so true — always on display at the annual opening ceremony,
The honor doesn’t lie in winning the event, but in being invited to it. Why? Because to be invited signifies a sort of status that invokes respect and in many ways bestows a responsibility to carry on Aikau’s traditions of fearlessnesses and compassion, the same fearlessness and compassion embodied by the surfers’ motto: “Eddie would go.”
