Tow-In Surfing

For starters Tow-In Surfing came about to ride waves that were too big and too fast for a regular paddle-in gun. As surfers began to progress and look for ways to push the sport farther and farther some brave men turned their eyes to bigger and bigger waves.

With the demands of bigger waves comes the demand for more initial entry speed. This is where the motivation for a jet-ski came into play to pull the surfers into these bigger waves. Laird Hamilton is the most well known big wave surfer of our day along with the infamous Eddie Aikau. Laird was born in San Francisco and raised in the North Shore so he was no novice when it came to riding large powerful waves.

As one of the innovators of tow-in and big wave surfing, Laird is responsible for bringing surfer’s attention to this new movement to push surfing to its limits. A rarely known side fact of Laird is that he regularly cleans the beaches of the spots he surfs.

Laird can be seen in this photo sitting on the jet ski in the middle of the photo.

Unfortunately for Aikau and the surfing community he was lost at sea when he went to find help paddling on his surfboard from his wrecked Polynesian boat. While everyone else was saved, Aikau lost his life in his brave act of attempting to help save the others.

Quiksilver still holds an annual Eddie Aikau Memorial Surfing Contest at Waimea Bay in the North Shore of Oahu when the waves are large enough to give justice to Aikau’s legend.

Tow-In surfing has progressed a lot since the days in which it was first created. Along with new advance board designs there have also been many off the wall attempts to ride waves in new ways such as the sit down surfboard and the foil board that you ride 3-4 feet off the face of the wave.

It will definitely be interesting to see where this unique spin off surfing will progress in the near future.

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