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| Kai Kane - Makua Rothman |
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 By Tiff HerveyPrince of Da Hui. Award-winning, big-wave charger: tow-in or paddle. Prolific pro surfer. Deep-sea hunter. Country boy. These are all titles that have been tagged on 22-year-old Makua Kai Rothman. But only one label truly applies: Makua is a waterman. He simply loves to be in the water. Whatever Mother Ocean dictates the conditions to be, he will find a way to play with her. The native Hawaiian also regards the sea as a place of sustenance, where he can catch his own food. He is grateful and humble to be born and raised in Hawai‘i and have grown up on the North Shore’s world-class waves. This place is quite literally, his life. Most people first started to hear about Makua in 2002, when he won the Billabong XXL Big Wave Challenge Award with a 66-foot Pe‘ahi wave at just 18 years old. He was the envy of his peers as he brought home $66,000 in winnings, a thousand bucks for each foot. Makua just made headlines again with his tow partner Ikaika Kalama, winning the Third Annual North Shore Tow-In Championships. But, if you’re savvy on the surf scene, you knew about Makua way before he won any comps, because he is the spawn of North Shore icon and Da Hui founder, Eddie Rothman.  Like surfing royalty, Makua now works to become his own man, while aware that the guard will eventually be passed down. Close friend and expert waterman Darrick Doerner has been showing Makua the ropes since the beginning, looking at him as the next generation— not just in the North Shore lineups, but in the fun side jobs that come with being a modern Hawaiian waterman: water patrol work, innovation and evolution of the sport, stunt work and Hollywood jobs.At the same time, Rothman has also been shown the entrepreneur side of the surf industry by surrogate older bruddah and partner, Kala Alexander. Makua is part owner of the Wolfpak and has many other business endeavors in the works with Alexander. There’s no other surfer in Makua’s age bracket with the same level of portfolio and contacts. Although this kind of pressure can try drive the strongest man crazy, Makua has the ocean to keep him sane. Like his ancestors before him, Makua is a waterman who finds his wisdom, strength and pleasure in the sea. FSM hooked up with Makua right after his win at the North Shore Tow-In Championships to find out what he has in the works this year. You started the year off with a bang, what’s the plan for this year? I’m off to Australia to do some contests. I love competing. It’s pretty much what I’m gonna be doing the rest of the year, all the WQS contests, hopefully surfing some good waves. So you are attacking the WQS this season? Yeah, might as well. Get paid to go and surf all over the world? Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. I tried to do the whole thing last year, but I broke my hand, and had knee surgery, so I didn’t get to do all the contests that I wanted to. But this year, it’s on. I’m going. Why not? I’m only 22. I’m only young once. Won’t ever get to try and do it again, so why not try, yeah? At least you can say you tried. What are your intentions competing on the WQS? I just want to have fun and see what happens after that. I don’t wanna stress myself out trying to be like, ‘Oh I’m gonna do this,’ and then fall short. I’m just gonna go and see what happens at the end of this year. I’m looking forward to going everywhere, even if it’s one or two-foot nothing waves, because its gonna be a better challenge for me. When did you learn to tow-in? Darrick Doerner and my dad taught me. My dad bought a jet ski and pulled me into a couple waves at Phantoms. I started towing in at like 13, I think. Double D [Darrick Doerner] lives right down the street, and he was one of the guys that innovated tow-in surfing. So I was lucky to have that right down the street, he taught me a lot, and it just went from there. I’m just lucky to have great people around me to teach me the basics of what I need to know and kinda modify it into my own style. What was your experience like at this year’s North Shore Tow-In Championships? If you’re a professional tow-in surfer, you have to surf everything. It doesn’t mean its gotta be 30 feet. If you gotta surf five, six feet, tow in. It’s not my fault you can’t rip. These guys are complaining, and guys thought they surfed good when the other team just smoked ‘em. Nobody likes to lose, so of course you’re gonna be mad. I’d be mad too, but you gotta be able to surf two feet to 200 feet. Do you prefer one way of surfing over the other, like towing versus paddling into big waves? I just like to surf. I don’t give a sh-t if I get towed in or I paddle in. Towing in is just easier for the kooks who can’t surf. They’re all, ‘Oh we’re big wave tow surfers,’ but what do you do on the big wave? You drop in and bottom turn and go to the shoulder? F---in’ big deal. Try hit the lip five or six times, or hit a 360 or something. I just love to surf. I don’t care if it’s tow in or paddle in. I don’t really get that [labeling], f--k, I’m a surfer. I f---in’ boogie board the shore break sometimes, I don’t care. Sometimes I swim, dive, fish, whatever; as long as I’m in the water. Who are your surfing influences? I always lived with Johnny Boy [Gomes] when he was a young kid. My dad took him in. We always had like Dane Kealoha, Sunny [Garcia], Michael and Derek [Ho] lived right across the street. I just look up to all the older guys who are ripping: Myles Padaca, Buttons, I watched all those guys when I was growing up. I was pretty into Johnny Boy when I was a kid, ‘cause he lived with us and was just a radical f---er, you know what I mean? I looked up to some crazy dudes. Do you have any superstitions or rituals you partake in before you go in the water? I just, you know, thank God or whatever it might be that created all this good stuff. The ocean, Mother Nature: thank you for letting me have the physical ability or the strength to even put myself on a surfboard and not be confined to a wheelchair or something. Obviously they put you here for a reason, might as well have a good time if you can. I give thanks every day no matter what I do— to whoever it was that created it. I’m sure there’s a super power greater than us, but you just gotta thank it that it’s giving you a good time. Do you get scared? If something goes wrong with my family, I get scared. I’m sure that there’s a little fear when I surf. I don’t know how to explain it; it’s just a trippy feeling, like, holy f--k, here we go, who knows if we’re gonna come out of this one or not. But you know when you left the beach and jumped in the water that you’re going out there to have a wonderful time. And just like anything else, sh-t happens. You can drive down the road and get banged, you know what I mean? I’m sure there’s something called fear sometimes. The guys who say they don’t get scared or they don’t feel fear, I think they’re lying. I think they’ve got too big of an ego to say it. It’s all fun and games ‘til somebody gets hurt. How do you handle a life-threatening moment in the water? Try to stay calm and relax. That’s about it. You can’t panic, once you panic, you freeze up and start losing your oxygen. In any sport— in anything you do— you never panic, always keep a cool mind. I have asthma. I could never breathe, you know. Always on empty, my oxygen tank. Do you think growing up with asthma helps you take it easy when you get held under? I’m sure it did. Sports helped my asthma a lot. Playing soccer, baseball, football, water polo; everything my dad put me into. I pretty much played all the sports. But when I can’t have so much air, it just kinda taught me to relax when your lungs feel like they’re on fire. What training do you do? I run and golf. I free dive, which helps my breath a lot. Some grappling, punch the bag, ride motorcycle. Whatever it may be, I just try and keep active no matter what. I always try not to sit down for a long time during the day. My metabolism is not as good as most people. Now that I know that, I just eat good food. Just try and keep a clean diet and keep active. I eat salad, fish, chicken and steak every once in a while. Not too many processed, packaged food. You know all those words that you can barely pronounce? Those are probably not the best for you. If you can’t read it, don’t eat it. What is your relationship with your dad like? Well, he says he doesn’t get along with people born in June or January, which means me and my little brother, but nah it’s good. He always told me when I was a kid: ‘I’m not gonna raise you like your dad, I’m gonna raise you like your friend because that way we can talk about things or I can show you, tell you, boy, I’ve been down that road, I’ve been there before and this is what happens, and it’s up to you if you want to go that way.’ Sometimes I didn’t listen and found out the hard way. Now I’m getting older and smarter and figuring out,: ‘Oh, I should listen to Pops. He didn’t get this far for nothing.’ Least I can do is just pay attention to what he says. What are the good, bad and ugly facets of being a son of Da Hui? People just like to stereotype, yeah? Everything is pretty much good. The bad part is just the people who hate and they don’t really know what’s going on. I try not to really worry about other people. I just try to focus on me, my family and my dad. And whatever he may have done or may not have done, or what people think he’s done, you know? I really don’t let that bother me. I have to try and be my own man. I can’t live for somebody else. To sum it up: it’s great. I can’t ask for more. What are some of the life lessons he taught you? He taught me how to dive and catch my own food. Everybody always says ‘respect your elders,’ and my dad always said don’t respect nobody that don’t respect you. Just ‘cause they’re older doesn’t f---ing mean anything, you know? He taught me to be smart, don’t make bad choices. Be strong-minded and don’t let nobody influence you. Just be strong and stick to your own beliefs. You don’t follow people, you be a leader. I know how to cook food in the imu, just in case the world ever went sour, you know, feed myself. You’ve been asked a thousand times, but would you like to share your thoughts on localism? Stay the f--k out of our way. We don’t come to your town telling you what the f--k and getting in your way. Give us some space. Come here, show respect. That’s it. You don’t get a deer running through another deer’s part of the land without getting a horn shoved in his side. You don’t get one alligator jumping in another alligator’s f--king pond. Just ‘cause we’re human? Oooh we can read! We’re still f--kin’ animals, brah. We have a small place, Hawai‘i’s so small. Come here, have a good time, and you’ll have a good time. Come here, act like a punk...[shakes his head.] When I travel around the world, I’m the most respectful guy. I just relax, show respect, aloha to everybody. That’s what we want here. We don’t ask for too much more. Goals for the future? Do the best that I can, maybe one day be a world champion. Like the Army says, be all you can be. I’m a businessman by blood. Just try and do the surfing thing for now. Who knows, I might not even be around for too much longer. I let my actions speak louder than my words. [PAU]
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