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Not to mention, he had sponsors, endorsements, and some of that money was going to Big Island Kids. If he didn’t surf, the charity didn’t get that money. He thought about Po and about all the other kids he could help. He had to finish the competition.
“I’m still your biggest fan,” the boy said. “I hate to ask this, bro, but could you sign this for me?” He produced an old surf magazine featuring Kai at the base of a seventy-foot wave crashing at Jaws, the crystal-blue water towering up above his head. He looked like an ant. He remembered that wave and that cover. The photographer had shot it from a helicopter that hovered near the top of the break and hardly anyone had seen anything like it before. That cover had been groundbreaking, and it had put big-wave tow surfing on the map.
The boy pulled out a pen and Kai scribbled his name on the white foam of the wave in the upper corner.
“Thanks, man.”
“Sure.” Kai stared at his younger self, the one in the photo, the one who took on any challenge without blinking. What had happened to that Kai?
The tsunami happened to him, that’s what.
The camera crew worked hard to attach cameras to the drones they’d power down over the waves.
“You guys know how to fly those?” Kai asked, wondering how the little drones would fare against a wall of water. Probably not so good.
“We’ve done this before.”
“Uh-huh.” He wanted to tell them to get a close-up of his knee when it gave out. He shook his head and shut his eyes, trying to use Jun’s advice to visualize himself successfully surfing Jaws. Of course, he knew visualization was worthless at Jaws. The break felt different every time you rode it, and you could never predict how any of it would feel. There was always a surprise. Usually a nasty one.
Dark clouds sat on the horizon and he watched them closely. Was a storm coming? Jaws was powerful enough under normal conditions. Storm swells would make it ten times worse.
Henley slapped Kai on the back. “I think it’s go time, man. You ready for this?”
* * *
JUN RUSHED OUT of the airport and got into the first cab she saw. She figured Kai would be at Jaws and decided to head there. Her blood boiled. How could he just leave her like that? Why on earth did he think she’d be content to let him finish out the competition without her? She got angrier the more she thought about it.
The cabdriver poked along the coastal highway and Jun leaned over the front seat. “Can you go a little faster?” she asked, knowing he probably wouldn’t. Unlike cabbies in big cities, cabbies in the island chain took their sweet time.
She took out her phone and dialed Kai’s number again, but her call went straight to voice mail. After what seemed like an eternity, the cab finally pulled up near the cliff lookout a hundred feet above Jaws. Trucks and cars crowded the small inlet, and spectators sat on car hoods and roofs, watching the dozens of surfers and Jet Skiers below trying to navigate the massive blue swells. The sky above grew overcast, and on the horizon, Jun saw a dark storm approaching. But worse were the choppy waves below. Even from this height, she could tell they were monsters—thirty feet and higher. She knew Kai took risks, and the picture of him in Po’s room showed him testing his mettle on a twenty-footer, but somehow she’d had no idea the conditions were this extreme, this perilous. She felt silly, suddenly. She’d been training him for exactly this, and yet she hadn’t really considered how dangerous it could be until now.
She asked the driver to wait and then jumped out of the cab and hurried to the edge to look out at the surfers. They were being whipped around by the surf, and even as she watched, one wiped out in amazing fashion, flying headfirst into a crushing wave. Frantically, she looked from board to board, trying to see if she recognized Kai’s. Beside her, two women sat on the hood of an open-top Jeep with a pair of binoculars next to them on the towel they’d thrown over the grill.
“Could I borrow those?” Jun asked, and one of the girls nodded, handing them over. Quickly, she scanned the surf, examining every dark-haired surfer out there. Finally, she found Kai. He was being towed out by a Jet Ski, balancing on his board, and above him, two drones floated, no doubt with cameras attached. She saw his lean form clad in a formfitting wet suit and a life jacket as he held on to the towline.
