Watch: Mason Ho In License To Chill: Waimea Bay

Remember the Eddie hype? The on, off, on, off nature of it? We wrote a few premature stories: code yellow, code green, the Eddie’s a GO! Oh shit, the Eddie’s a NO? El Niño! – everyone and their newscaster was talking about it. It was all you heard. Jaws was the next biggest thing on a weekly basis. And we patiently waited for the right swell to swing through Waimea. Would it be big enough? Would it be too big? It went Code Green one Thursday morning and the most notable big wave surfers flew into Waikiki. They made their way to Kam Highway and packed the seven mile miracle. 

“That Friday was such a bummer for me,” Mason told Stab on the day the Eddie didn’t run. “Leading up to, and after the Pipe Masters I was surfing all day everyday. I kept telling myself I needed a day off before my body shut down. Friday morning that day came along with a sore throat, clogged sinuses and a high fever. I was so mad I couldn’t surf, it ripped my heart straight in half.” The day was debated as contestable, but Mason had a different theory on why the event was called off. “I like to think it was the surf gods. They knew I was sick with a fever and were like, nah no contest today. But, if they did call it on I would have been out there even if I was bleeding out of my eyes.” After all, he is a Ho. His pops, Mike, won the Pipe Masters with a broken arm…