Clyde Aikau Collapsed Outside Las Vegas Restaurant and Needed Emergency Open Heart Surgery

Clyde Aikau collapsed outside a Las Vegas restaurant and required emergency open heart surgery.Photo byAikau Family / GoFundMe

Clyde Aikau, the legendary Hawaiian waterman and younger brother of Eddie Aikau, is in a Nevada hospital after collapsing outside a Las Vegas restaurant.

According to a crowdfunding campaign set up to help Aikau with his medical bills, he collapsed after dinner while in Vegas for a convention. When he was taken to the hospital, it was discovered that he had an aneurysm in his aortic valve. He was rushed into emergency open heart surgery.

“Uncle Clyde is currently recovering in a hospital in Las Vegas,” the Aikau family wrote. “As you can imagine these medical bills are already piling up, we still need to get him home, and we don’t know when he will be able to return to work. Please help us support The Aikau Ohana financially here! Anything helps.”

As of this writing, the campaign has raised $25,405 of a $200,000 goal. A handful of surfing’s best have chipped in, including Kelly Slater, Kelia Moniz, Shaun Tomson, Eli Olson, Luke Shepardson, and Joshua Moniz.

Clyde Aikau’s contributions to the surfing community are many. He’s one of the organizers of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, an event he won in 1986. In 2016, he competed in it again at the age of 66 and proved that he still had what it took.

His career started when he was a teen. He was Hawaii’s Juniors Division Champion, and continued competing for 51 years. He, like Eddie, was a Waimea lifeguard for a decade, performing countless successful rescues. In 1973, Clyde won the Duke Kahanamoku Classic. But his influence in surfing goes far beyond his talent riding waves — Clyde is an Uncle of the highest order.