THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506020108
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
SURF'S UP! WAY UP! Up so high that the waves aren't measured in feet, but in increments of fear.
Only gladiator-caliber surfers take on the mountainous crests of Makaha Point, on the island of Oahu, in Hawaii. The ``big wave'' riders are warriors, locked in a battle with nature.
Ivan Trent lives the life of a warrior, always in the water. The 36-year-old petty officer first class has been a Navy SEAL since he was 18. He started surfing the big waves of Hawaii at age 8.
Trent is one of a select group of 33 men from around the world invited to compete in the Makaha Point Surf Challenge. The only U.S. military man entered, he has been invited to the event for the past five years.
But he has never competed. No one has. The meet hasn't actually been held. The reason: This ultimate challenge requires ultimate waves - at least 20 feet high.
That's another dimension for surfers accustomed to peak waves of 8 feet off Virginia Beach or 10 to 12 feet off Cape Hatteras.
Trent and the competition's organizers say they're certain this is the year for the challenge. Big waves run in cycles, and Makaha Point is due.
The event is sure to attract worldwide attention, so an invitation puts Trent in some exclusive company, said Bill Frierson, co-owner of a Virginia Beach water sports store.
``It is a life-or-death competition, so they choose the competitors very carefully,'' Frierson said. ``Only those people who are confident in their ability to ride big waves are considered, and most of those are found in Hawaii. This is an epic event, a rare bird.''
Big wave surfers, Trent says, have a lot in common with SEALs, the Navy commandos based in Hampton Roads and in San Diego.
Both surfing and commando work are physically and mentally challenging, requiring strength, agility and a capacity for controlling fear, said Trent, with SEAL Team 8 at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
``But the biggest similarity is the mindset,'' he said. ``Both my job and my hobby require me to be offensive and aggressive, yet humble enough to be balanced.
``It's all a matter of timing, making just the right move at just the right time.''
Trent will leave in November for a four-month temporary duty assignment as a Navy recruiter in Hawaii. While he waits in hope for the perfect big waves, expected some time between Dec. 5 and Feb. 28, he'll be in training for the competition - up to 10 hours a day.
The work includes daily runs, workouts, swims, and surfing - on waves at least 15 feet high.
The Navy sponsors many competitive teams, even Olympic bobsledders, swimmers and runners. But Trent is on his own, except for the Navy's agreement to give him temporary assignment.
He's going to Hawaii on ``no cost orders,'' which means he will draw his regular pay for work as a recruiter but must cover his own expenses for transportation, training and other costs for the event - including the $700 surfboard he's having made.
``The Navy's sponsorship is in its support, the recruiting duty and the time to train in Hawaii,'' he said. ``I want to recruit for the SEALs, to tell people we're not just combatants, but that we're winners - in all aspects of life.''
SEAL - for Sea, Air and Land - is a term adopted in 1983 to describe the expanded duties of the Navy's ``frogmen,'' the underwater demolition teams formed in 1947.
Trent learned the secrets of surfing from his father, geologist and renowned big wave rider Goodwin ``Buzzy'' Trent. The elder Trent left his native California in the early 1950s to become one of the first five ``mainlanders'' to challenge the waves of Hawaii's north shore. Islanders call the monstrous waves there ``kapu,'' or very dangerous.
The big waves hit Makaha Point five or six times each year, from November to March. Only if they're really, really big will the organizers declare the contest under way.
``From the time swells hit the weather buoy offshore, it takes nine hours for them to hit the beach,'' said Brian Keaulana, a competitor and native Hawaiian who is in charge of making the call.
``In order to hold the contest, we need six to eight hours of swells running at a minimum of 20 feet,'' he said. ``The face of the wave (what you see from the shore) should be 50 to 60 feet high. The bigger, the better. We're looking for a long ride, two minutes or about an eighth of a mile. We usually know four or five days ahead if there's a chance of holding the contest.''
Only at night have waves that big rolled in during recent years.
But Keaulana says he's certain the contest will come off this year. The cycle for perfect big waves is about every nine or 10 years. The last ones came in 1986.
Keaulana and Trent are childhood friends. Keaulana's father, Richard ``Buffalo'' Keaulana, surfed with Buzzy Trent.
Training is critical not only to success but to survival in the Makaha Point Challenge, Keaulana said. The big waves can snap you in half if you aren't prepared.
``What makes Ivan a good contestant for this event is what makes him a good Navy SEAL,'' said Keaulana, 33. ``He has a positive, `Charge 'em' attitude. It's in the way he looks at life. He knows his abilities and his limitations, which is exactly what you need to survive big waves.''
Trent won his first surfing contest at 14. He has been a finalist several times in the long board division of the East Coast Surfing Championship, held annually in Virginia Beach.
``But surfing is more difficult for me here,'' said the 5-foot-9, 185-pound sailor. ``It requires a whole different spectrum of skills to master small waves. I'm used to being pushed by Mother Ocean. Surfing is a young man's game, and my youth is fleeting.''
Still, surfing small waves helps him tackle the big ones because it develops a different set of reflexes.
When Buzzy and Buffalo first started surfing in Hawaii 40 years ago, the size of the waves dictated the size of the boards. Big wave riding was all new, and the early boards were 10 feet long, 40 to 60 pounds, and made of balsa wood covered in fiberglass.
Surfers in Virginia and North Carolina now generally ride waves on 6- to 7-foot boards that weigh less than 6 pounds. In the last few years, long boarding has shown a resurgence and a number of surfers - particularly those in their 30s, 40s and older - ride boards of 9 feet or longer.
Trent owns a 10 1/2-foot surfboard that weighs about 25 pounds; he bought it in 1986 for $375.
He plans to ride a custom-made, 12-foot, 30-pound ``big wave gun'' at Makaha Point. A plastic foam core covered in three layers of fiberglass cloth, it is being made by surfboard shaper Bill Frierson, co-owner of Wave Riding Vehicles in Virginia Beach.
Though he's a mainlander - a resident of Virginia Beach in the continental United States, or CONUS in Navy lingo - Frierson knows surfboards, Trent says.
``Bill is the only shaper in the CONUS I would trust to build my board,'' Trent said. ``You're putting your life in the hands of the person who builds your board.''
Trent will retire from the Navy in a few years. He dreams of moving to the mountains around Lake Tahoe with wife Michele and their four children.
Makaha Point is a last hurrah, a climax to his big-wave riding career and a way to enhance the image of SEALs before he retires.
``I've been invited, and I've been on call for this event, since 1990. But I feel it's solidified this time; I just know this is the year.
``If I can compete, it will show that a career military man can still chase a dream, despite his dedication to the service. It will show people that SEALs have desires and dreams, like everyone else. We're not just combatants.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff color photos
Virginia Beach resident Ivan Trent is the only U.S. military man
invited to enter the Makaha Point Surf Challenge in Hawaii.
Photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Ivan Trent, a first-class petty officer and Navy SEAL, rides a
20-foot wave in Hawaii to prepare for the Makaha Point Surf
Challenge.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY SURFING by CNB