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Spot on Spot - A Revisionist Glance at Historic Surfing Locales: Ala Moana

Quotables:

“Bull mouthed monsters…a mile long with smoking crests”
– Jack London, on the waves of Waikiki in Woman’s Home Companion 1907

“I used to say it was the squarest wave you could ride until we found Teahupoo…boy was I wrong.”
– Scott Austin Hartvigsen

“The spot is a symbol of South Shore surfing, and a lot of guys dedicate their lives to riding it when it’s 6 feet or bigger.”
– Bernie Baker

Misconception(s):

It’s overly crowded and aggressive. That would be an understatement - it’s outrageously crowded and dangerously aggressive. On a day over three feet that’s what it’s all about.

It’s a guy’s break only. Despite the aggro vibe, some of the most beautiful surfing women in Hawaii paddle out there everyday.

It’s perfect. The actual quality of the wave might be overstated. While it makes a pretty picture, photographers will attest to the frequent closeouts and overwhelming ratio of bails as opposed to makes. Even the best spots have room for improvement.

In the Beginning:

Ala Wai Marina began as an inshore estuary. The reef stretched down the coast into Magic Island and Ala Moana Reef Park, and there was no bowl, channel, or even canal. The absence of these features meant a much different wave – rideable up to a certain size but a closeout with bigger swells – but mostly just a closeout. Leading breaks around Waikiki (stretching from Publics to #3’s) were always more populated because they were more accessible and, quite simply, more rideable. Bowls was considered out of the way and unappealing until the construction of the Ala Wai Marina, Ilikai, and Hilton Hawaiian Village. All of the nearby (and currently legendary) surf spots like Kaisers, In Betweens, and Rockpiles also became more popular with these additions.

In the 1950’s the Army Corp of Engineers dredged the sand beside the reef in Ala Mo’, basically creating the famous bowl seen today in movies and magazines. With a fairly shallow channel, Bowls still closes out on swells over ten feet. This means even departing boats have to yield to the ocean as waves sometimes peak in the channel.

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