Brian Keaulana (steering) with Dave Parmenter, Terry Ahue, and Keone Downing

Buffalo’s Big Board Surfing Classic is like no other event in Hawaii. For 31 years the event has drawn in avid surfers, water loving kids and beach families for two weekends of surfing fun ‘n games in the Pacific. The Pacific Olympics if you will. This year the competitions included surfing, tandem surfing, bodyboard, canoe wave riding, team body surfing and stand-up paddle surfing. Many competitors enter every division.

The entries come from the Big Island, Maui and as far as Brazil, France, Japan, and Australia. “The Buff” is a spectators delight--it’s just cool to be there and hang on the beach watching everyone have a good time in the water.

Buffalo created his event as a way to get as many people from his West side ‘neighborhood’ as possible together for a weekend of ocean competition and one hell of a 48 hour luau. Well, that 48 hours has now stretched into 4 days – 2 weekends in a row – and there’s very little that can stop the Buff, short of a tsunami. And if there was tsunami, everyone would just head for the hillside and walk back down when it was all over.

The Buff is about community and everyone helps put the show together. The tent city stretches for a hundred yards across the sand. When it’s all over you’ll see the real aloha spirit - everyone pitching in to pack it all up and leave their beloved Makaha beach clean of litter and that includes kids of all ages. Buffalo’s Big Board Surfing Classic is as much a learning event for the future generations as it is a fun time of competing for the older guys and girls. – Bernie Baker