This Viral Hawaii Project Gives the Gift of Surfing…for Free

“You know," the late-great godfather of surfing Duke Kahanamoku said in 1965, "there are so many waves coming in all the time, you don't have to worry about that. Take your time—wave come. Let the other guys go; catch another one."

One of Duke’s main missions in life, and among his greatest contributions to the world, was spreading the joy of surfing far and wide. Through his surfing demonstrations – post 1912 Stockholm Olympics, where he won gold in swimming – the Duke introduced surfing to the East and West coasts of America, Australia, New Zealand, and beyond.

But somewhere along the way, the plot was lost; Duke’s mission regressed. Surfing, in many such cases, became a gatekeeper sport; the rise of localism was spawned; the if-you-don’t-surf-don’t-start ethos filtered throughout lineups across the globe.

Enter, the First Wave Project: a movement, gaining eyeballs on social media, which plucks strangers off the streets of Waikiki, and takes them surfing for their very first time, all for free. It was created by three childhood friends on the South Shore of Oahu – Buddy Wiggins, Zach Murphy, and Isaiah Moniz. Their mission? Similar to Duke, is to share the joy of surfing, but it goes further than that. Through surfing, via the act of riding their first wave, the participants experience a catharsis of sorts. Some of them are struggling with their weight, some are battling drug and alcohol addiction, and all of them are convinced they can’t surf. But when they do, things change. Their confidence is boosted, they forget their doubts, and they mainline that elusive hit of stoke directly into their bloodstream.

Take, for example, one recent session, where they took a guy out who’d been on a bender in Waikiki, and was down in the dumps.

“Every time he's in Waikiki, he's just bar-hopping, drinking on the beach, and watching the waves,” Moniz said. “Now, after that first session, he can go and enjoy surfing. During our surf, he even expressed, like, it might be time to put the alcohol down.”

In another instance, the boys took out Connor Tomlinson and Tanner Smith, two stars of the show Love on the Spectrum, for their maiden surf session. From that video, the surf world chimed in: “How good is seeing people enjoying surfing?” wrote Mick Fanning. “That’s what it’s all about,” penned Kai Lenny.

“The closer we are to the ocean, the more she grounds you,” said Murphy. “We all know this as water people. But people who don’t get the chance, people who don’t have the opportunity, or people who simply are scared and don’t think they can do it…they don’t get to experience that. For me, it’s like church. It connects us as humans. It’s the great equalizer. We wanna show the great healing power of the ocean, and share that as far as possible.”

And then, by showing these experiences on social media – to great applause, by the way; the account is gaining steam in the followers department – the people learning to surf get to share that moment with thousands of other people. Perhaps even giving hope to others.

“Some of these people that we take surfing,” said Wiggins, “we make them a superstar for a week or so. They have, like, 500 people telling the how awesome they are. For someone who doesn’t get much love, that can change their lives. Allowing these people to get praised, even for just a brief moment on social media, that’s been huge.”

Now, going back to Duke. The boys scout the streets of Waikiki for people to take surfing, right where the iconic statue of Duke stands. It’s also the same place where Duke first popularized surfing, with the original beachboys, before bringing it across the world. And so, it makes sense that the boys are continuing Duke’s mission, right there, on the storied shores of Waikiki.

“We’re like the modern-day Dukes,” said Isaiah, “We have an opportunity to reach an audience outside of the surf community, which is really hard to do. A lot of people outside of surfing, they don’t understand what it’s like to surf Pipeline, what it’s like to do a big air. That’s for core surfers. But we’re reaching basically any human – anyone can relate to our message. We’re using surfing as a messenger to reach people outside of the surf community.”

Murphy added, laughing: “We’re showing surfers that they’re not as cool as they think they are, and to the people who don’t surf, they can feel cool, too.”

For more, follow the First Wave Project here.