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From Surfline:

There are surf stars and there are surf stars. Some become great. A few become heroes. Most fade into obscurity. Every now and then, a surfer comes along who transcends the desires, dreams and expectations of others. And his very life becomes a myth.

Eddie Aikau is one. Perhaps because he embodies the twin themes — the stoke and the tragedy — of Hawaiians, the people who gave surfing to the world and took so little in return.

In 1968, Aikau left the Dole job and persuaded the Honolulu city and county to appoint him North Shore lifeguard. He was given the task of covering all beaches between Sunset and Haleiwa and saved hundreds of lives over the next three years. Hardly any official rescue reports made it back to lifeguard headquarters; Aikau was not a report writer. In 1971, the roving patrol was disbanded and Aikau was assigned to Waimea Bay, where — despite his disdain for haole tourists and suicidal Marines — no lives were lost while he was on duty.

When the Polynesian Voyaging Society announced it was seeking volunteers for a journey of rediscovery aboard its double-hulled replica canoe Hokule’a, Eddie leaped at the chance.

The Hokule’a trip was designed to retrace the ancient Polynesian migration passage between Hawaii and the Tahitian chain — 2,400 miles south of Honolulu. It had done a similar trip in 1976, accompanied by backup vessels; this time it would go alone. Hokule’a sailed out of the Magic Island dock on the evening of March 16, 1978, straight into a strong northeast tradewind. By midnight, tracking down the rough Molokai Channel, the canoe developed a leak in the starboard hull and eventually capsized. The crew hung on and hoped for a quick rescue, but by morning they were locked into a southerly flowing current and still being smashed by the tradewind. Aikau insisted on paddling for help — his target being the island of Lanai, 12 miles to the east — and at 10:30 a.m., Captain David Lyman relented. Aikau made a leash of nylon rope for his big rescue board and paddled off, saying: “Don’t worry, I can do it. I can get to land.” At 8:27 p.m., a Hawaiian Air jet pilot saw the canoe’s flares and strobe lights and requested aid; by midnight, most of the crew was on its way back to Honolulu.

Eddie Aikau was never found. A memorial was mounted at Waimea Bay Beach Park, and the famous invite-only Bay event held in his name waits each winter for the kind of surf he made his own.

Eddie Aikau: May 4, 1946-March 17, 1978

Yes, there’s a part six. The previous entry in this saga outlined how for five months running Hawaiian Telcom managed to overcharge me for long distance. Lo and behold, when December’s bill came at the beginning of January, it was screwed up. This time we didn’t get billed for long distance service at all! This despite me making multiple calls to Canada in December.

This has happened before to us, and it took Hawaiian Telcom four months to charge us.

Luckily for me this saga is coming to an end. We’re moving again, this time to Volcano. Oceanic says that they’re in the testing phase for digital phone service up there, so until that comes along I’m either looking at getting a cell phone or a Skype phone. Anything to get away from Hawaiian Telcom.

Help celebrate Sam’s birthday in the Fourth Annual “Virtual” Groucho Party:

Well it’s that time again, and you know what you have to do, no ?

OK … on the 18th day of the second month of the year I celebrate my continued existence, and for the past three years for one reason or another that has been slightly tricky, however to get around an issue of geography I have celebrated it “virtually” online with a “virtual” Groucho Party.

What is a Groucho Party, I imagine you may ask ?

“Essentially a Groucho Party is a twist on a fancy dress party where by everybody comes dressed as Groucho Marx.”

The “virtual” twist works like this, “Take a picture of yourself wearing a pair of glasses and a greasepaint or false moustache, and smoking a cigar ( or cigar type object ;) and send it to me”, “I will display them on the web somewhere”, you can also upload them onto your own website and send me a link.

You can see previous years entries on the web here …

http://optimist.sdf-eu.org/groucho/

This is a continuation of a series (1, 2, 3).

Part four actually happened back in October 2006, when our house got struck by lightning, knocking out our telephone connection. After going out to the junction box on the side of the house, plugging in a wired phone only to get no connection (thus proving that the problem wasn’t inside the house), Alice called Hawaiian Telcom to get someone out to fix it. The customer service rep told Alice that it was probably a problem with our phone because it was cordless.

Needless to say, after Alice bitched at them for being stupid they sent out a technician to find a blown fuse in the junction box. Who would’ve thought.

Part five has been going on for five months now. Five months ago one of our phone calls to Victoria got billed as if it were a call to Rwanda. I know how easy it is to confuse Rwanda and Canada. They both have the letter ‘a’ in their name. I called and got that fixed fairly quickly.

Next month we got overcharged for long distance. Not outrageously, mind you — we got charged either 7 or 10 cents a minute to Canada when our plan is 5 cents a minute. I called and got that fixed.

Next month we got overcharged for long distance. Not outrageously, mind you — we got charged either 7 or 10 cents a minute to Canada when our plan is 5 cents a minute. I called and got that fixed.

Next month we got overcharged for long distance. Not outrageously, mind you — we got charged either 7 or 10 cents a minute to Canada when our plan is 5 cents a minute. I called and got that fixed, but this time the CSR said that she’d personally look into it and send me a letter. Haven’t heard a thing since, and that was a month ago.

Notice a pattern? Can you guess what happened on the bill I just received? That’s right! The only change is that I haven’t called because their call center is down because Honolulu is getting hammered by a winter storm.

I am beyond disappointed in Hawaiian Telcom’s customer service. They always say that they’re looking into it, yet nothing changes. Counter-example: Oceanic Time Warner Cable. Our DVR was getting a little flaky, so they sent a technician out to look at it. Turns out it was an older model that had problems dealing with some of the programming, so we got a new one. A week later we got a voucher for a free pay-per-view movie from Oceanic “for the inconvenience [we] suffered.” Now that’s customer service!

All I have to look forward to from Hawaiian Telcom is another overcharged bill and another wasted fifteen minutes on hold. And that’s why Hawaiian Telcom continues to suck.

On August 28, 2007, the Hawaii Superferry begins operation, transporting people and vehicles between Honolulu, Kahalui, and Nawiliwili. It’s been touted as a good way for families to travel between islands while driving their own car. No longer will you have to fly to another island and rent a car when you’re there.

However, this convenience comes at a price. I’m going to compare the cost of travelling between islands for a family of four via both the Hawaii Superferry and via one of the big interisland airlines: Hawaiian Airlines. Our hypothetical family of four has two adults, one child aged 7, and another child aged 3. They live in Lahaina, Maui, and are going to visit family in Waianae, on Oahu, for a week. They’ll be leaving Maui on September 22 and coming back on September 30. When they fly, they’ll be renting a compact car from Dollar in Honolulu.

On the Hawaiian Superferry they’ll be travelling on peak days. Luckily they’re booking more than 14 days in advance, so they get the discount. The tickets cost $54 one way for each parent, and $51 one way for each child. Their car costs $69 one way. For the return trip their tickets will cost $558. These prices do not include the fuel surcharge, which is currently (as of August 22, 2007) 30.8%, so this family’s total ticket price comes to $729.86.

Let’s see what Hawaiian Airlines has to offer. On those dates there are plenty of $39 one-way tickets, so let’s go ahead and book those. With taxes and fees, the total for flights costs $359.20. Booking a Dodge Caliber (seats 5) with unlimited mileage costs $157.04, including all taxes but not including any extra insurance. The total price comes to $516.24.

The Hawaii Superferry costs $213.62 more for this hypothetical family of four.

Just as a silly and pointless exercise, I’m going to compare this with the ferry system I’m most familiar with: BC Ferries. The comparison is a little unfair as BC Ferries don’t have to navigate the open ocean (well, except for the Inside Passage and Discovery Coast routes) and can thus be a little less engineered than the Hawaii Superferry, and the trip is about half as long. Still, let’s take a look at the BC Ferries prices if we want to go between Vancouver and Victoria (via the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route). BC Ferries prices are in Canadian dollars, which are sitting at about 0.94 US dollars.

For the parents, the one-way ticket price is $11.95. For the 7-year old child, the price is $6.40. The 3-year old gets on for free. The car costs $41.85 one-way. Put these all together and the round-trip cost for this family is C$144.30, or currently about US$136. Or about $594 cheaper than the Hawaii Superferry.