Everyone knows Hawaiʻi has an intimate relationship with surfing. How its surf breaks are named are just as storied. Below, the roots behind such spots so you can impress your friends with your inside scoop.
Text by Travis Hancock
Images by John Hook & Keoki Saguibo
Queens
Home to perhaps the most recognizable beaches in the world, the commercial coast of Waikiki hosts a number of soft and accessible surf breaks. Front and center is Queens, which got its name from Queen Lili‘uokalani’s beach home, which stood at its shore in the early 1900s. Surfing a single summer wave at Queens—alongside five full-speed-straight-ahead longboarders, two hot-dogging virtuosos, a full outrigger canoe, a dozen bodyboarders wearing goggles, and a hapless, tumbling snorkeler—produces a truly unparalleled experience. No wonder it’s the birthplace of the party wave.
Goats
Surfers willing to make the extra paddle over shallow reefs and through notoriously sharky waters enjoy this typically uncrowded break off the small northeast islet of Mokuauia, more popularly known as Goat Island. Now home to protected seabirds—the goats said to have once grazed here being long gone—the islet’s location causes swells to wrap around its shores, producing multi-directional waves, some of which break away from the shore of the mainland, forcing unexpected wipeouts.
Kammies
Isolated between Sunset and Rockies, two popular surf breaks on the North Shore, Kammies, or Kammieland, offers a consistent and friendly alternative ride. But more remarkable than the break is its long-gone namesake: Kammies Market. Established in 1961 by the Kam family, this little cinderblock general store just across the road from the beach offered everything from snacks and beer to a full selection of video rentals until its demolition in 2006. While food trucks and new construction take off where Kammies once stood, the long rights at Kammieland will keep supplying stoke well into the future.
Chocolates
Tucked behind a protective manmade jetty at Hale‘iwa Harbor, this North Shore freak of a break requires massive ocean swells to even muster an ankle-biting crest. Although it can be a fun haven for kids and beginners, Chocolates requires surfers to brave the brown water that churns where Hale‘iwa’s Anahulu Stream carries all manner of floral and faunal runoff to its meeting place with the sea.
Pinballs
Waimea Bay is famous for both its shorebreak and its skyscraping monster waves tamed by the likes of legendary surfer Eddie Aikau, for which the big wave riding surf competition held here is named. On smaller days, a surf break known as Pinballs peels off the right side of the inlet, but don’t be fooled, as it’s no less forgiving than the shorebreak—lose your board and it may very well, as the name suggests, ping off the rocky wall all the way to the sand.