Written By: Lily Rothman, Liz Ronk
In May of 1963, as the surf craze swept the U.S. and popular images of surfers tempted newcomers into the water in the days before wetsuits were common, LIFE magazine had a message its readers: Surfing was fun but it wasn’t all fun and games. It was also dangerous, especially when it came to the waves off the North Shore of Oahu.
The magazine explained to unfamiliar readers how the sport worked there: “The men who ride the big ones in Hawaii actually ski down the shoulder of a wave away from the curl… They call the first breathtaking schuss ‘taking the drop.’ Their boards accelerate up to 35 mph so rapidly that they kick up waves like speedboats. And a merciless mauling awaits the unfortunate who doesn’t complete his ride. He is driven downward by the appalling maelstrom, tossed around, sucked back down and frequently, after fighting up for a desperate gulp of air, hammered down again by the next wave.”
And yet a brave group of surfers sought out the big waves anyway, for what LIFE called the “peril and ecstasy” of the sport’s toughest waves. Enabled by new innovations in balsa wood surfboards that had opened new vistas to surfers in the 1940s, the surfers returned again and again, despite the risks.
Looking at these photos by George Silk, it’s not hard to see what drew the surfers back to the water. Some experienced, what surfer Fred Van Dyke described to Silk as, “the greatest feeling the world.”
Nick Beck of Honolulu caught a wave on his light board.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A pair of riders, cutting frothy furrows in the wall of a wild 18-footer, seemed headed on a collision course at Sunset Beach.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Surfer Rick Grigg caught a ride at Banzai Beach, Oahu, Hawaii, 1963.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A teenage girl rode the surf, 1963.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Hawaii, 1963.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Preston Leavey, paddling frantically to get on a wave and begin his ride. A camera, was bolted to the front of the board and recorded the glitter of refracted light from the spray.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Before riding in on great waves surfers had to fight their way out past foaming barriers.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
At Sunset Beach, a surfer rode a thundering 15-footer.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Hawaii surfers, 1963.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Hawaii surfers, 1963.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Joe Kaohi maneuvered desperately to cling to his board as he tried to ride into the tunnel of a wave at Banzai Beach.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Hawaii surfer, 1963.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
