Our Royal sport of Kings

I’m in a funny place. Seated at the bar, four stories high above the tourist drag of Kalākaua Ave. in Waikiki at a Maui Brewing Co. restaurant, which strangely enough came recommended by our Kauai-based, occasional food and drink editor Paul Brewer. He said the food here, for Waikiki, is “actually pretty good” and surprisingly, he’s not wrong. The atmosphere is Morgan Wallen remixes, four kinds of ESPN on numerous televisions and the kind of 3pm sadness that falls inside restaurants between the lunch and dinner rushes, but I’m happy. It feels far from the antiseptic clean resorts downstairs. There is zero pretense here. I found my beach.

I’d like to tell you I spent the day channeling Jack London, sandy-footed at the Royal Hawaiian watching the “winged-heeled Beach Boys outrun the foaming breakers in a demonstration of our royal sport of kings,” between Blue Hawaiians, but sadly, I did not. I’d also like to tell you that I went ‘70s feral on the North Shore with nothing but a 7’6” Brewer and a pair of black trunks — but, again, I have not had a chance to make the annual pilgrimage to da country. I did walk across Town to the local Fed Ex several times though and while that’s not the most exciting thing to say, the reason I’m here is exciting: We’re here to celebrate 40 years of Reef on The Rock — paying homage to decades of commitment to the core — and there was work to be done.

While we wait for the festivities to begin tonight, I have the crack stream of Pipe Masters by Blak Bear Surf Club on in the background at my Maui Brew Co. perch, so I’m not entirely dried out. I love their pirate enthusiasm — it reminds me of surfing’s earliest webcasts, before it was professionalized by the WSL (which has its perks, let’s be real), featuring commentary by the community — Dooma, Chad Wells, Marty Thomas, Adam Repogle, Occy, etc, etc — just dudes who love this shit so much they can’t help but give earnest, honest opinions and fun stories between sets. They weren’t media trained or politically correct — most were actually problematic even, but they were our problem.. Our devoted core lords, broadcasted live over glitchy, buffering streams and and that felt special — like a secret society coming together to view the bizarre, but highly important discipline of competitive surfing. What the Blak Bear Surf Club is doing in the shadow of a goliath like Vans feels down right punk rock and is really just an illustration of surfing finding a way, somehow, amid the sea of corporate catastrophe that our industry has become so accustomed to. We are the small cockroaches that will never go away, no matter how big Vans Tik Tok following gets.

But the real loss in all of this is what’s become of the Pipe Masters brand, our single most important surf event, the Crown Jewel of our second most important event (The Triple Crown, RIP). It’s crazy that in 2024 we aren’t able to view an event that has our most immortal names etched in its history, or showcase surfing’s iron man, the Triple Crown, an event that made names like Sunny Garcia, Derek Ho, Michael Ho and Andy Irons synonymous with North Shore domination and gave opportunities to tons of local Hawaiians on the big stage. It also just made sense: Haleiwa, Sunset and Pipe. What a gauntlet!

It was only a few years ago we counted down the 50 Heaviest Moments in Pipe Masters History. The countdown reads like Ancient Mythology. Michael Ho winning with a cast on his arm. Kelly vs. Andy. “The Snap.”. JOB winning as a wildcard. Derek Ho winning and becoming the first Hawaiian World Champ.. The list goes on and on. Now the event is a one-off, with no webcast, or connection to the grand scheme of surfing. We get the Rip Curl Gromsearch broadcast live…but not the Pipeline Masters. Hmmmm. 

As all this plays out, it seems fitting that tonight we’re throwing the grand finale party for Reef’s 40th Anniversary at the Romer House Waikiki. Various legends of the brand, past, present and future will be here and we’ll be documenting that on our IG so follow along there. As the surf world swirls, we’re skipping all the noise and simply getting everyone together to hang.

We’re celebrating what Reef likes to call their “Everlasting Bonds” with Hawaii, a term that might sound like marketing jargon if the roots within the brand weren’t so deep here. Tonight, multiple generations of Machado, Beschen and Ho will be in attendance with the rest of their iconic team, all part of a brand that has been synonymous with surfing, fun, irreverence, core legends and string bikinis

In a moment where our most credible surf brands are in peril, making sure the ones with the right legacy join the inevitable pirate renaissance we’re about to witness is important. Reef seems to be doing their part. So is Blak Bear Surf Club. Chapter 11, AVVA, Former, Rivia, Steko, Seager, Summer Street, us! Keep not dying everyone. Things are about to get weird, which means things are about to get awesome. Kinda like Waikiki — among the commerce and cringe-inducing tourism and gluttony are magical moments, like Makoa Ho delivering his dad’s World Title trophy to display tonight. These moments happen when you least expect them. In Town, while what’s left of the Pipe Masters is running across the island, or just sitting in a Maui Brewing Co at 3:30pm in the afternoon and the most unlikely of Kenny Chesney tunes hits just right.—Travis Ferré

Above Photo: Makoa Ho, son of World Champ Derek Ho delivering his World Title trophy to be displayed tonight].