HONOLULU (AP) — Mayor Kirk Caldwell is seeking a solution that will allow the Eddie Aikau big wave surfing competition to continue, despite failed negotiations between the legendary surfer’s family and the event’s sponsor.
City attorneys are trying to figure out permitting issues to continue the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, Caldwell said Monday.
The permit issued for the event for the 2016-17 season might no longer be valid now that Aikau’s family failed to reach an agreement with Quicksilver for continued sponsorship.
Quiksilver said negotiations broke down during the weekend after the family rejected the company’s “multiple offers of substantially increased monetary support for future events.”
“As a gesture of our respect and support, we are happy to give our permit to run the event in 2016-17 to the Aikau family, should the City of Honolulu allow it, and stand by to run the event with the family if they so choose. It is our most heartfelt wish to see the tradition of The Eddie carried on without interruption,” Quiksilver CEO Pierre Agnes said in a statement.
The Aikau family called on city officials during a Monday news conference to help them work out the permitting issues.
An attorney for the family, Seth Reiss, said the breakdown in talks with Quiksilver was not a matter of money.
“The family’s primary concern is that the event would lose connection with Eddie Aikau and what he represented. It was the nonmonetary issues that were difficult for the parties,” Reiss said. “The parties tried to work it through and they haven’t been able to.”
The Waimea Bay invitational, which requires waves of 30 feet or more, has only happened nine times in its 31-year history. It’s hosted in honor of Aikau, a lifeguard and big wave surfer who died in 1978.
“Eddie Aikau was known as a person who could settle disputes between diverse parties,” Caldwell said in a statement. “In his honor, we are committed to bringing everyone together to ho‘oponopono and work towards finding a solution for this world class contest that unites all of Hawaii.”
