10th Annual International Surfing Championships trophy ‘Senior Men first place’
DateJanuary 1963
Object number00054957
NameTrophy
Mediumtimber, threads of seed beads
DimensionsOverall: 710 × 305 × 175 mm
ClassificationsCeremonial artefact
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Bev Farrelly and family in memory of Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly
DescriptionThe 'Senior Men First Place' wooden trophy for the 10th Annual International Surfing Championships. The trophy, featuring a Hawaiian surfer standing in front of his board holding a spear, was won by Australian Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly at the January 1963 championships held in Makaha, Hawaii. He would go on to win in the subsequent year, the first international surfing competition held in Manly, Australia.
The local Hawaiian folkloric traditions of the carved timber form of the Hawaiian surfer at Mahaka contrast with the ambitions of the silver-plated globe flanked by surfboard riders as the first world open surfboard championship trophy, held in Manly Australia in 1964, sponsored by petroleum company Ampol.
The form, aesthetic and materials of each of the trophies attest to the differing character and aspirations of the two events they represent and the changing face of the sport of surfing at that time.
HistoryIn January 1963 Australian 'Midget' Farrelly's win in the tenth annual Hawaiian Makaha championship was the first time that the title was awarded to a non-indigenous surfer from outside Hawaii. It shocked the surfing world at the time when the surfing competition, held on the western side of Oahu, Hawaii from 1954 to 1971, was regarded as the unofficial world championship. The event had been dominated by Hawaiian surfers, and was contested by a crowded and growing field of international entrants from mainland USA (California), Australia, Peru, Great Britain, France, New Zealand and South Africa.
In an Australian context this win has a resonant depth and hook to it in that surfboard riding was popularised in Australia after the visit of Hawaiian surfing and swimming champion Duke Kahanamoku in 1914. While interest grew internationally in the 1950s and 60s, in 1963 Hawaii was still considered the epicentre of the sport. And 50 years after Kahamoku's visit an Australian Midget Farrelly took the crown in the Hawaiian titles, a dominance consolidated the following year when Farrelly won the inaugural world titles at Manly in Australia against international surfers Hawaiian Joey Cabell and Mike Doyle, LJ Richards and Linda Benson from California. In the interim, late in 1963, Joey Cabell had won the 11th Mahaka championship. Impotantly the Manly finals were both won by Australians, Midget Farrelly Senior Men and Phyllis O'Donell senior women.
See following references from the Encyclopaedia of Surfing
http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/makaha
'History-rich surf break located on the arid west side of Oahu, 30 miles northwest of Honolulu; often described as the birthplace of big-wave surfing; home to the 1954-founded Makaha International Surfing Championships, the world's first international surf competition.
Bordered by steep lava- ridged valleys and mountains to the east, Makaha (Hawaiian for "fierce") is one of the state's most consistent and variegated breaks; summer waves are generally below four feet, winter waves are frequently six feet, and can get up to 25. The predominant northeast tradewinds blow offshore. The enormous Makaha reef is home to a group of interconnected breaks. During a medium-sized swell, the most popular takeoff zone is located at the Bowl, which produces a steep drop that quickly backs off into the Blowhole section, which in turn leads to the Inside Reef—a zippy tube that funnels into a notorious throttling backwash-filled shorebreak just a few yards off the beach. When the surf is below eight feet, the Makaha lineup is filled with all manner of surf craft, from tandem boards and SUPs, to outrigger canoes, bodyboards, longboards and shortboards.
When the swell at Makaha hits to 15 feet or bigger—less than a half-dozen times each season, usually—the crowd thins out considerably as the wave breaks over an outer section of reef known as Point Surf. Makaha gets bigger than 20 feet maybe once or twice a decade, but when it does it often shapes up as a thundering 200-yard-long wall that terminates at the looming and frequently non-negotiable Bowl section, the "royal flaw," as described by Surfer magazine. (Big-wave surfer Fred Van Dyke had such a hatred of the Bowl section that in 1958 he planned to level the responsible area of reef with dynamite. The plan failed, and the Bowl remains the great challenge for Point Surf riders.)
Makaha's close-knit surf community is often praised for upholding Hawaiian traditions and mores. The economically depressed area is also noted for its violence and crime, and outsiders are generally made to feel unwelcome. "You want to come to Makaha?" local surfer Melvin Puu told Surfing in 1991, addressing the magazine's readership. "Don't." Rusty Keaulana, Makaha local and three-time longboard world champion, for a time sported a bumper sticker on his fender that read "Welcome to Makaha—Now Go Home!"
While Makaha was likely first ridden by premodern Hawaiians, 19th-century Makaha Valley landowner Kuho'oheihei "Abner" Paki is generally cited as the break's first surfer; after 1860, however, Makaha remained unsurfed for more than 75 years. In late 1937, just a few months after the development of the racy hot curl surfboard—sometimes called the original big-wave board—John Kelly and Wally Froiseth of Honolulu, along with a few others, rediscovered the Makaha surf. This new break was the perfect seasonal counterpart to Waikiki, where the surf is biggest in the summer and early fall.
Teenager George Downing joined the original group of Makaha surfers in the mid-'40s, and soon gained a reputation as the island's finest big-wave surfer. Venturesome Californians like Buzzy Trent, Bob Simmons, and Walter Hoffman soon joined the Hawaiians, and by the early '50s the mainlanders were spending their winters living in a small row of army-built Quonset huts at the mouth of Makaha Valley, eating rice and peanut butter, and lying in wait for big Point Surf. America at large got its first look at Makaha in 1953, when newspapers across the country published an Associated Press photo of Trent, Downing, and Woody Brown shooting across the face of a sparkling 15-footer; inspired, another two or three mainland surfers packed their boards and headed for Oahu.
The first annual Makaha International Surfing Championships were held in 1954, and before decade's end the contest was known as the unofficial world championships. It was also the world's first televised surfing event, running from 1962 to 1965 on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
By the late '50s, Oahu's North Shore had replaced Makaha as the capital of big-wave surfing. But the west side break still had its moments: Downing and Trent rode immaculate 25-footers there in 1958, and in 1969 California roughneck Greg Noll paddled out at Point Surf and caught the biggest wave ever ridden up that time, a 35-foot closeout that he was lucky to survive.
As Makaha faded somewhat from public view in the '70s, a colorful local surf culture continued to flourish, in large part thanks to longtime Makaha patriarch Richard "Buffalo" Keaulana, along with the "Queen of Makaha," Rell Sunn, who organized events like the Buffalo Big Board Classic meet and the Rell Sunn Menehune Contest. Makaha also hosted the 1984 United States Surfing Championships, the 1997 World Longboard Championships, and the 2003 Masters World Championships. When Sunn died in 1998 after a long fight with cancer, her ashes were scattered at Makaha.
Makaha has been home base for a number of world-class surfers since the late '70s, including Rusty Keaulana, big-wave riders Brian Keaulana and Keone Downing, 1999 world tour champion Sunny Garcia, and power surfer Johnny-Boy Gomes. Makaha has been featured in more than 50 surf movies and videos, including Trek to Makaha (1956), Slippery When Wet (1958), Cavalcade of Surf (1962), The Endless Summer (1966), The Golden Breed (1968), Five Summer Stories (1972), Ocean Fever (1983), Surfers: The Movie (1990), and Blue Shock (1998). Surfing magazine named Makaha one of the "25 Best Waves in the World" in 1989.'
Fierce Heart: the Story of Makaha and the Soul of Hawaiian Surfing, a book by Stuart Holmes Coleman, was published in 2010
Makaha International Surfing Championships
http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/makaha-international-surfing-championships
Annual surfing competition held at Makaha on the west side of Oahu, Hawaii, from 1954 to 1971, usually in November or December; regarded in the late '50s and early '60s as the unofficial world championships.
Created by Honolulu surfer and restaurant supplier John Lind, and sponsored by the Waianae Lions Club as well as the Lind-founded Waikiki Surf Club, the inaugural Makaha event was a bust: the wave-riding events were cancelled due to lack of surf, leaving just the paddling races. Attendees were all from Hawaii or Southern California. California surfer Flippy Hoffman later recalled that the opening Makaha event was not without drama, as tensions flared between the Makaha surfers and the Waikiki surfers, then between the Hawaiians and the visiting Californians. "They had this luau," Hoffman said, "and a big hassle developed over how to cook the pig. Things got pretty hot. That first contest had a lot of fist-fights and hassles."
The Makaha event steadied itself in 1954, surfers from Australia and Peru joined in a few years later, and by the end of the decade it was the closest thing the sport had to a world championship. From 1962 to 1965, the contest was shown on ABC's Wide World of Sports. The Makaha competition structure was different from contests held on the mainland. In California and the East Coast, surfers usually were sent into the water in heats of six; Makaha heats had as many as 24 surfers, each wearing an identifying number-stenciled T-shirt. There was no interference penalty for riding in front of another surfer, and a photo taken during the 1965 Makaha contest shows five riders clustered together on the same wave.
The Makaha scoring system was also unique, as each ridden wave was scored on a points system from one to 30, with an emphasis on ride length and wave height equal to that given to performance (turns, cutbacks, etc.). Also, because the Makaha event was open to all surfers, the number of contestants was enormous—more than 500 by 1965. Big-wave pioneer Wally Froiseth ran the event from 1960 to its demise in 1971.
The surf at Makaha International over the years ranged from two foot to 20 foot. The event peaked in 1963, as huge waves swept into the bay during the men's division final, won by Hawaii's Joey Cabell; Time magazine covered the event, calling it surfing's "supreme test."
By the mid-'60s, however, the contest's reputation was nosediving. The first World Surfing Championships were held in 1964 in Australia, and 1965 brought the first Duke Kahanamoku Invitational at Sunset Beach—both events cut deeply into Makaha's prestige. The surf media meanwhile criticized Makaha for its crowded heats and judging favoritism (no California surfer even won the men's division), as well as its archaic scoring system. "Makaha is the Worst" was the title of a 1966 Surfer magazine article, while a Surfing editorial urged California surfers to boycott the event completely. In the late '60s and early '70s, the Makaha contest went all but unnoticed by the surf press.
George Downing, Joey Cabell, Martha Sunn, Fred Hemmings, and Nancy Nelson each won three Makaha titles.
Makaha International footage from the mid-'50s to the early '60s was often used in surf filmmaker Bud Browne's movies; later events are seen in Golden Breed (1968), Tracks (1970), and Five Summer Stories (1972). Winners for the men's, women's, junior's and tandem divisions of the Makaha International Surfing Championships are as follows:
1954: George Downing, (no women's), Alan Gomes, Walter Hoffman/Joanie Jones
1955: Rabbit Kekai, Ethel Kukea, Alan Gomes, Ed Whaley/Nancy Boyd
1956: Conrad Cahna, Ethel Kukea, J. Raydon, Robert Krewson/Kehau Kea
1957: Jamma Kekai, Vicky Heldreich, Timmy Guard, (no tandem event)
1958: Peter Cole, Marge Calhoun, Joseph Napoleon, Rabiit Kekai/Heide Stevens
1959: Wally Froiseth, Linda Benson, Paul Strauch, Ed Whaley/Diana Moore
1960: Buffalo Keaulana, Wendy Cameron, Erick Romanchek, Mud Werner/Robin Grigg
1961: George Downing, Anona Napoleon, Fred Hemmings, Rabbit Kekai/Lucinda Smith
1962: Midget Farrelly, Nancy Nelson, Peter Kahapea, Joseph Napoleon/Sue Ellen Ketner competition held in January 1963 (ANMM edit - Daina f)
1963: Joey Cabell, Nancy Nelson, Fred Hemmings, Mike Doyle/Linda Merrill
1964: Fred Hemmings, Joyce Hoffman, Joey Gerard, Mike Doyle/Margie Stevens
1965: George Downing, Nancy Nelson, David Nuuhiwa, Mike Doyle/Danielle Corn
1966: Fred Hemmings, Joyce Hoffman, Reno Abellira, Pete Peterson/Barrie Algaw
1967: Joey Cabell, Martha Sunn, Reno Abellira, Bob Moore/Patti Young
1968: Joey Cabell, Margo Godfrey, Keone Downing, Leroy Achoy/Blanche Benson
1969: Paul Strauch, Martha Sunn, Keone Downing, Bob Moore/Blanche Benson
1970: Peter Drouyn, Martha Sunn, Craig Wilson, Steve Boehne/Barrie Algaw
1971: Mark Sedlack, Becky Benson, Larry Bertlemann, (no tandem event
SignificanceThis Hawaiian Mahaka trophy marks a seminal point in the growth of the sport of surfing, its internationalisation in the 1960s, and the ascendancy of champion surfer Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly and Australian surfers within this circuit. Farrelly (1944-2016) enjoyed a stellar career as a surfer, surfing writer, promoter, role model and surfboard designer of international fame.
17 March 1962
17 March 1962
17 March 1962
