Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero and Pioneer of Big Wave Surfing

by Stuart Holmes Coleman

Book Overview

From surfer and writer Stuart Holmes Coleman, Eddie Would Go is the compelling story of Eddie Aikau's legendary life and legacy, a pipeline into the exhilarating world of surfing, and an important chronicle of the Hawaiian Renaissance and the emergence of modern Hawaii.

In the 1970s, a decade before bumper stickers and T-shirts bearing the phrase Eddie Would Go began popping up all over the Hawaiian islands and throughout the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312327188
• ISBN13: 9780312327187
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great hawaiian legend

If you ever wanted to know the story of a modern Hawwaian legend this book will fill that void. Eddie is and was a legend not only for surfing but for the locals on Hawaii. Even though I am from the mainland I could not put this book down. If you love to surf or are just interested in Hawaii this is a good read.

Inspiring Book

Stuart Holmes Coleman did a wonderful job displaying the life of Eddie Aikau. The story entailed plenty of Hawaiian history and culture while telling Eddie's moving life story. The book also displays the difficulties of being Hawaiian and gives a good background of his loving family. Eddie was the first one to surf big waves, and I mean big (40-50ft.). He is a Hawaiian idol because he inspired many to surf, and there is a big wave contest every year in memory of Eddie. Eddie was on the yearly trip to re-enact how the Philippians founded the Hawaiian island when a storm broke loose and the boat was stranded at sea. Eddie convinced the captain to let him take the surf board and swim to shore to get help (that's where "Eddie would go" comes from). He left the ship with intent to save everyone but was never seen again, but the crew was later rescued by a ship passing by. I loved the book; I think that it is inspiring to live life to the fullest as Eddie did. After reading a story like this, my own life seems boring; I wish that I was as brave and bold as Eddie. This book can let you draw your own conclusions and learn your own life lessons, and the story is so great that is it worthy of rereading and retelling. I highly recommend the book to surfers, or anyone else that wants to read a good life story. Eddie Would Go is a great book for any kind of reader, and good for anyone over the age of eight. If you are contemplating reading this book, go and buy it, it is well worth it.

Surfers Must Read

This is the great book for surfers for what surfers were and what surfing are now and then.All the surfers must read once at least.Eddie is the truely a master of the surfing and you will feel his soul on the North Shore. I also recommend this book for non-surfer because of the writer is quating a lot of Hawaiian history and cultures.If you want to know real Aloha spirit,Hawaiian culture and peple,this is the great guide book.

A fascinating biography from a very gifted writer

How's this for a myth? A handsome young man grows up on a beautiful island, living close to nature. He finds a slab of spear-like board and discovers he can use it to challenge waves bigger than anyone thought could be tamed. He rides them flawlessly as they thunder and crash around him. Even his daily life is extraordinary: He patrols beaches to save those who venture out too far --- and no one dies, ever, on his watch. Then comes a mythic opportunity to recreate an ancient voyage. Soon after the double-hulled canoe sails, however, it runs into trouble. Our hero volunteers to swim 12 miles across choppy water to get help for his mates. He sets off --- and is never seen again.But this is no myth. It's the life story of Eddie Aikau, the 32-year-old Hawaiian waterman who died in l978 trying to save his shipmates (who, as it happened, were all rescued a few hours after he started swimming for shore). And what a story! Start with a kid as handsome as Jason Scott Lee, as athletic as Duke Kahanamoku and as soulful as Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. He loves the water so much he drops out of school at 16. At 21, when he's not much known as a surfer, he shows up at Waimea Bay and triumphs over 40-foot waves. Suddenly he is in the Pantheon of big-wave surfers. And stays there until his death.It was inevitable there would be a book about Eddie. And that it would be called EDDIE WOULD GO --- the phrase other watermen used to describe Aikau's unrelenting willingness to leap into deadly surf to save swimmers in trouble. What was not inevitable? That EDDIE WOULD GO would be written by someone as gifted as Stuart Coleman. A writer, teacher and surfer, he strikes just the right balance between Eddie's life on land and his heroics on the water. He tells a double story well: courage and integrity on the water, a spiritual quest on land, as Aikau pondered what it meant to be a Hawaiian in a rapidly changing world.Forty foot-high waves. Normally brave surfers standing on shore. And one surfer --- Eddie Aikau --- smiling as he and his board become one with the water. It's an image that will warm you on cold winter nights. And, in summer, make you just a bit more respectful of kids on surfboards, dreaming of glory. --- Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth

Great athlete, greater man

How's this for a myth? A handsome young man grows up on a beautiful island, living close to nature. He finds a slab of spear-like board and discovers he can use it to challenge waves bigger than anyone thought could be tamed. He rides them flawlessly as they thunder and crash around him. Even his daily life is extraordinary: He patrols beaches to save those who venture out too far --- and no one dies, ever, on his watch. Then comes a mythic opportunity to recreate an ancient voyage. Soon after the double-hulled canoe sails, however, it runs into trouble. Our hero volunteers to swim 12 miles across choppy water to get help for his mates. He sets off --- and is never seen again.But this is no myth. It's the life story of Eddie Aikau, the 32-year-old Hawaiian waterman who died in l978 trying to save his shipmates (who, as it happened, were all rescued a few hours after he started swimming for shore). And what a story! Start with a kid as handsome as Jason Scott Lee, as athletic as Duke Kahanamoku and as soulful as Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. He loves the water so much he drops out of school at 16. At 21, when he's not much known as a surfer, he shows up at Waimea Bay and triumphs over 40-foot waves. Suddenly he is in the Pantheon of big-wave surfers. And stays there until his death.It was inevitable there would be a book about Eddie. And that it would be called EDDIE WOULD GO --- the phrase other watermen used to describe Aikau's unrelenting willingness to leap into deadly surf to save swimmers in trouble. What was not inevitable? That EDDIE WOULD GO would be written by someone as gifted as Stuart Coleman. A writer, teacher and surfer, he strikes just the right balance between Eddie's life on land and his heroics on the water. He tells a double story well: courage and integrity on the water, a spiritual quest on land, as Aikau pondered what it meant to be a Hawaiian in a rapidly changing world.