Brock Little, Ken Bradshaw and the 25-footer that
shaped both their destinies. And it still kills Kenny!
“Aaron Napoleon was just screaming at me,
calling me every goddam name under the sun and just screaming ‘You
go you fucking pussy, you go, go, go.’ There was no doubt in my
mind I was going to make that wave.”
Reckon Brock Little ever gets sick of telling that story?
It’s the Hawaiian winter of 1990, Waimea Bay, the Quiksilver in
Memory of Eddie Aikau.
Look at the image and ask yourself once again. Reckon Brock
Little ever gets sick of telling that story?
Well, would you?
“The thing is at big Waimea, when those big ones come through,
not many people want anything to do with ‘em,” recalls Brock, now
47. “That wave came through and everyone just bolted for the
horizon, everyone except (Ken) Bradshaw and me. We were side by
side and both paddling for it. I took off, he took off and…”
Stop the tape… right… there.
Two careers are seconds away from taking two very different
turns. One will be righteously bathed in glory for eternity; the
other left to ponder what if and temporarily wander the desert like
Moses, searching for internal redemption.
“The… biggest… mistake… of my competitive career was not
catching that wave,” says Ken Bradshaw, now 62, and nearly a
quarter of a century after the event. “He took off and fell and got
all the glory, I kicked out ’cause I knew there was a much bigger
one behind it. But…it just didn’t turn out. Biggest… mistake of my
career.”
But back to Little.
“I knew I was in a good spot to catch that wave, just turns out
I wasn’t in a good spot to ride it,” he says. “Either way, I
paddled my ass off, I clearly remember just wanting it so bad and
it was letting me in.”
Little manages to get to his feet and assumes the same position
he’d done countless times before. “And then I hit a bump, and all
of a sudden I was just skimming down the face like a rock over
shallow water. And the whole time I was just looking up, thinking
to myself, ‘If that lip lands on me I’m dead’. But luckily it
didn’t”
Little then has a few seconds to contemplate what’s in store as
he watches the lip thrown over him. “I remember thinking I was
either get my ass kicked real good or I was going to die. Either
way I was at peace. I put myself in that position and I was happy
with that. But, and I don’t know if I was hallucinating or what at
this point, I then remember being sucked up and over and for a
split-second I could see the whole of Waimea Bay and I just caught
a breath and I think from that point, I knew I was going to be
ok.”
Thousands lining the shore of Waimea Bay see the wipe-out, but
it’s the resulting image of Little, teetering on the brink of
disaster that will end up on walls worldwide for years to come. “I
remember walking up the beach after it, and everyone was looking at
me like they’d seen a ghost,” he says. “But you know, I’m so proud
of that moment. I don’t look back at it and think, ‘What the fuck
was I thinking?’ I’m proud of wanting that wave and I wanted it
real bad.”
Not that his reputation ever needed it, but the moment and a
glorious attempt at a tube ride moments later elevates Little to
the top tier of manliness among the most manliness of line-ups the
world has ever known.
“It’s the same with Healey, Dorian, Jamie, Twiggy and all those
guys,” says Brock. “You either have it or you don’t. You either
want it or you don’t. I mean, I was in pretty good shape at the
time but I knew some of my peers were training harder or what not
but you’d see them out on the big days and you could see that fear
in their eyes.”
As for Bradshaw…
“I don’t think I ever have gotten over that moment. And I’ve
never really spoken to Brock about it either.”