Kealoha Kaio was a native Hawaiian surfer who, in the early 1960s, quietly earned a solid-gold reputation as one of the world's best big-wave riders. He competed now and then but was better known for his relaxed no-drama style, even in the biggest, steepest, gnarliest waves. A lot of young big-wave hopefuls, including Eddie Aikau, imitated Kaio's approach. Most of his work life was spent driving a garbage truck for the City and County of Honolulu. He died in 2005, at age 70.

Kaio seemed to go out of his way to avoid the spotlight. He was never interviewed or profiled at length and wasn't often filmed or photographed. By all accounts, he was warm, friendly, funny, and devout.

This short remembrance was pieced together from the following articles: "Island Big-Wavers Sound Off" (Petersen's Surfing, Sept 1964), "Personality of the Month" (Dick Graham, Surfing, April 1965), "What the Experts Say," Petersen's Surfing Yearbook #2, 1965), "The Quiet Legend" (Nick Carroll, Surfing, May 1992), "Greg Noll's Scrapbook" (Surfer's Journal, Summer 1997), Eddie Would Go (Stuart Coleman, 2001), and "Passings" (Kimo Hollinger, Surfer's Journal, Oct 2005).


I started in 1956, here in Oahu, when I was 21 years old. My older brother Rodney took me out for the first time. I was just out of the military, diving, fishing and drinking. Surfing cleaned me up. I stopped drinking and smoking. We surfed Goat Island and Kahuku, and I got pretty good. Then I started surfing Sunset. I’d ride till it closed out; till I got it wired. By 1963 I was full-on. Anything big, I was there.


He surfed with Buzzy Trent, Peter Cole, Greg Noll and Dick Brewer— the latter two both made him boards, including a favorite eleven-foot concave model from Brewer.


I like big surf, [but] don’t really know why. I guess I like big waves because they aren’t as crowded as small ones. It’s thrilling. The truth is when you live in the Sunset area like my friends and I do, the waves are usually pretty big, so if you want to surf you ride big waves.


[Kaio] is married and has eight children. He comes from a rather large family himself, having five brothers and five sisters. He works for the State Highway Maintenance Department and considers himself only a part-time surfer, as he goes in the water only after work and on weekends.


I thought Ricky Grigg was the best. Then I started watching him closely and saw how he would throw his hands up just after the takeoff, and still have them up during bottom turns. So I decided I would work on keeping my hands and arms low down through turns on bigger waves.


To me, Kealoha Kaio was Hawaii's best big wave rider, bar none.


I think he was the first to do bottom turns consistently at Waimea.


I learned about the big-wave bottom turn from Kealoha Kaio, a great Hawaiian surfer and friend, and that helped me win the [1965] World Championship.


He has the most relaxed style I’ve ever seen, no matter the size of the surf. I recall once at Sunset, I was riding a 15- foot wave and was barely squeezing through, thinking to myself how fortunate I was to be making it. Then I glanced over my shoulder and saw Kealoha standing there, behind me, in his ultra-relaxed position, with a smile on his face, as if it was nothing.


He rode with style, with coolness; arms at his side, relaxed like some guys could do in ten-foot Sunset, but he was doing it at twenty-plus Waimea.


That [arms low] style trait, one of the key steps to modern big-wave ripping, moved through surfers from Eddie and Clyde Aikau to Jeff Hakman and later to the distinctive carving of Gary Elkerton.


Kealoha Kaio is a tall and well-built man


I stay in shape by skin-diving and running. It helps with breathing and I think it gives me confidence. I also lift weights.


He is well-liked by everyone he comes in contact with but is extremely shy.


You never heard a bad word said about Kealoha from any of the surfers. All he got was total respect.


The waves on the outside break at the Pipeline are rideable if they are big enough, but you have to be sure and kick-out before you reach the inside break. One of the worst wipeouts that I can remember happened there. I was riding the inside break on a good 15-foot day. I made the take-off and turn, and then, BOY! I got caught and smothered, then was sucked up over the falls and hit the bottom. Now every time I see a picture of a big wave at Banzai I shudder and my eyes almost pop out of my head.


He had a wonderful sense of humor and loved to tease me. I remember once the North Shore was blown-out and gnarly. Kealoha asked me if I wanted to go to Makaha with him in his car. We’re heading down the road and he turns to me and smiles. He says, “My car only has the first two gears,” and he starts laughing. There’s hardly any traffic so we make it to Makaha okay. But the ride back is a different story. We’re coming up the Kunia Hill with a long line of exasperated drivers following us. Every time a car gets to pass us, they honk their horns, yell, and give us the Hawaiian salute. This just evokes more laughter from Kealoha. I'm stewing, while he's having the time of his life


Even as a teenager, Eddie [Aikau] kept yearning to ride bigger and more challenging waves. One night the family went to an outdoor amphitheater called the Waikiki Shell to watch a new surfing movie by Bud Browne, the first serious surf cinematographer. Lying out on the lawn under the stars, Eddie was hypnotized by the footage of a big-wave rider named Kealoha Kaio taking off on a huge North Shore swell. He watched in awe as Kealoha, in slow motion, dropped down the face of the wave that was three times his height. It was beautiful to see this big, graceful Hawaiian gliding across such a huge wave, so at home in the roaring surf. The crowd whistled and shouted in excitement. Staring in wide-eyed wonder, Eddie looked at his parents and said, “I’m going to catch the biggest waves ever ridden."


His family owned that whole valley where Brigham Young College is now. Over the years they would give land to the Church ten acres here, five there, twenty acres here, whenever the church asked for it. To get to the Kaio family home now, you have to go through all the Mormon property, up the dirt road, unlock a chain-link fence, and there’s their modest cottage on an acre and a half. That’s all that’s left. You cannot show interest in or admire anything Kealoha has or it’s yours. I remember looking at a giant conch shell in his front room. It turns out to be one of only two he ever found in Hawaiian waters or something, and when I go to leave it’s sitting on the front seat of my car. It made me cry. The Hawaiians gave everything they had and the 

 took it all. The Hawaiians gave till there was nothin' left to give.


I see big things for surfing. Our sport will soon grow to become an Olympic event. It is growing so fast, and so many people are taking it up, that soon surfboards will be popping out of machines like toothpicks.


Kealoha Daniel Kaio Sr., 70, of Laie, a city refuse truck driver, died in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born in Honolulu. He is survived by sons Kealoha Jr., Kenneth and Gina; daughters Helene Simmons, Danielle Haiola, Teihaka Leon, Susan Johnson, Salu Folasa, Lisa Foki, Theresa Angilau, and Lori Fears; mother of children Marie; sisters Lorraine Sam and Betty Johnson; brothers Pele, Jacob, and Lincoln; 38 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

KEALOHA KAIO, QUIET BIG-WAVE MASTER

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