We have heard from two reliable sources on the North Shore of Oahu that the reason why the 13 foot Hawaii Challenge board was kept hidden and out of Garrett McNamara's hands for three months was that the custodian of the board Mr Bill Ward of Haleiwa had received threats that he would be murdered if he let the board out to be surfed.The saga continues as the board is now with friends elsewhere in Hawaii, and is having the new fin installed.
Here's a question from a reader:
'supersizedsurfer': I don't get it? A million boards a year flown over by all sorts of poeple and they wanna kill over an Olo board? Why is this?It's a board in a million. ... . in fact it's a board in a hundred million !She ( the board ) was getting a lot of attention, prior to the surf industry intervention there was a queue of North Shore surfers lining up to ride the board and Garrett McNamara was dialling in to ride her at 2nd reef pipeline, we had surf photographers, magazines and video guys all amped up to cover it, and it was all all over the NS that it is a really good board, which it is.It's not an olo board in the strict sense of the word, it's a longboard gun, and in our opinion will have a good chance of winning the Eddie Aikau memorial big wave competition.It isn't the first time that this sort of thing has happened, look at the fuss over one skinny aussie ( Wayne Bartholomew ) back in the 70's. . . and look at what they did to Tom Blake.. .. it's pretty much the way the mafia over there operate whenever something or someone great arrives from outside Hawaii, I have a fair idea of who is paying to get the dirty work done too.Some people ruthlessly attack any threat to their total supremacy and control, and make no mistake these boards do threaten the surf industry stranglehold for several reasons: 1) The boards break long accepted design rules upon which the mana of the surf industry is based. 2) They come from New Zealand 3) They come from someone who has refused to join their cartel and is very critical of it. 4) The boards are so much better than any of their longboards that it strikes fear and despair into their hearts when confronted by them in the waterA one word explanation is JEALOUSY.
Here's a question from a reader:'supersizedsurfer': I don't get it? A million boards a year flown over by all sorts of poeple and they wanna kill over an Olo board? Why is this?It's a board in a million. ... . in fact it's a board in a hundred million !She ( the board ) was getting a lot of attention, prior to the surf industry intervention there was a queue of North Shore surfers lining up to ride the board and Garrett McNamara was dialling in to ride her at 2nd reef pipeline, we had surf photographers, magazines and video guys all amped up to cover it, and it was all all over the NS that it is a really good board, which it is.It's not an olo board in the strict sense of the word, it's a longboard gun, and in our opinion will have a good chance of winning the Eddie Aikau memorial big wave competition.It isn't the first time that this sort of thing has happened, look at the fuss over one skinny aussie ( Wayne Bartholomew ) back in the 70's. . . and look at what they did to Tom Blake.. .. it's pretty much the way the mafia over there operate whenever something or someone great arrives from outside Hawaii, I have a fair idea of who is paying to get the dirty work done too.Some people ruthlessly attack any threat to their total supremacy and control, and make no mistake these boards do threaten the surf industry stranglehold for several reasons: 1) The boards break long accepted design rules upon which the mana of the surf industry is based. 2) They come from New Zealand 3) They come from someone who has refused to join their cartel and is very critical of it. 4) The boards are so much better than any of their longboards that it strikes fear and despair into their hearts when confronted by them in the waterA one word explanation is JEALOUSY.
