Of all the noble steeds to be trotted out of the shed for last week’s Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational it was pretty damn hard to overlook the regal-looking pale blue single fin under the arm of Clyde Aikau.

Even from the comfort of the couch watching the spectacle on TV from far away, it wasn’t hard to be swept away by its beauty, girth and above all, its stringer.

The thing simply radiated energy and the fact it was under the arm of a 66-year-old gent about to paddle out into macking Waimea in honour of his late brother just added to its mystique.

Later in the day, Clyde busted out another red gem that looked equally comfortable under foot and made even more remarkable by the fact neither were his.

You see, just prior the Eddie that didn’t go, Clyde found himself short a couple shooters and with time running out, he put in a call to the one man he knew would have what he was looking for, North Shore shaping royalty, Chuck Andrus.

“He called me out of the blue, like he does from time to time, and asked if I had anything that’d do the job,” Andrus recalled.

“My mind went straight to a board I’d shaped for Ricardo Polmar (the blue one) and another I’d ridden a lot out of Phantoms (the red one) but had actually retired.”

For the tech minded, the measurements of Polmar’s board are quite impressive, 11’8” x 22.5” wide x a hefty four inches thick (handshaped out of a five inch US Foam “Big Guy Gun” blank).

Underside, Andrus says the layout owes a lot to the design aspects dialed in during the 70’s.

“It has a subtle vee in the tail and a flat football shaped spot in the front for your acceleration and a slight vee in the nose to break away the water,” he says.

“The rocker is pretty moderate, nothing too extreme, so it’s pretty much your classic big wave gun that we’ve been shaping for years.”

Glass wise, Andrus says it was wrapped in seven ounce top and bottom with an additional “double six’’ patch on the deck and looped glass rovings for the leggie.

As for that stringer, Andrus requested two half inch bass wood stringers running at opposing grain to distribute stress and any potential weak spots.

The second board Clyde rode was a pretty standard thrusters set up, while Polmar’s was a single fin.

“Clyde’s pretty much always been a single fin guy,” Andrus says.

“But he got to ride both boards the day after they called The Eddie off and he got some beautiful waves on them, so I was pretty confident he’d cope with both set ups.”

As for the day itself, Andrus says he mostly busy working as a spotter for event organisers but the gravity of the situation was not lost on him.

“It was a pretty historic moment really; here’s one of the great surfers at Waimea Bay having his last hoorah honoring his late brother,” Andrus recalled. //ANTHONY PANCIA

PS: Wanna find out more about Chuck?