Eddie Aikau Research Paper

“Actions speak louder than words” said Eddie Aikau. Eddie Aikau still inspires us today, with those wise words of his. He was born on May 4, 1946 on the island of Maui, later he moved to O’ahu where he became a lifeguard. As a lifeguard, Eddie had the courage to make sure that no lives were lost during his duty on Waimea Bay. He gave the people on the island tips, to stay safe and was able to work well with others during a rescue. Eddie wasn’t only able to save the lives of the people, he was able to win many surfing contest, such as the 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship. The citizens rewarded Eddie with, the Honolulu City & County Lifeguard of the Year award for being such a fantastic hero to Waimea Bay. After all of Eddie’s …show more content…
With the knowledge of the ocean, it encouraged him save the lives of a tremendous amount of people. According to the Eddie Aikau Foundation it states “Eddie braved surf that often reached 20 feet high or more to make a rescue.” This illustrates, that without his skills of surfing or the knowledge of the ocean, he wouldn’t be able to protect the citizens. Imagine if Eddie was never interested in surfing, he would lack the skills to rescue someone on Waimea Bay. By using the ‘ike of the ocean, it emboldened Eddie to take care of the people of Honolulu. One of Eddie’s friends, Peter Cole states “...he was the best at Waimea. All of us will agree on that. He was taking the biggest waves. He was making them, he was trimming and he was riding it better than anyone." As you can see that, from challenging himself to take on the biggest waves, he was able to improve his skills. The skills that he had provided for himself, gave him the gallantry to accomplish the mission, Malama Honua. According to the Eddie Aikau Foundation, some of the locals said the “Eddie Would go”, meaning that out of all of the surfers that has had much experience as him, Eddie would always be the one risking his life to save