By Mike Latronic Photos Ryan “Chachi” Craig
Looking more like a Kentucky derby horse jockey than a Banzai beast slayer, 23 year old Makana Pang wields his super powers in waves of consequence not giving one flying F what it looks like or what anybody thinks.
With a mom who surfs and a dad who’s a master shaper and big wave Hellman, this Northshore local is a product of his environment and was bred to shred. Growing up blocks from Pipeline Pang’s shortlist of school buddies and peers include hard chargers Barron Mamiya, Noa Beschen, Kalani Rivero, Koa Rothman and the Florence bros to name just a few. On any given day when the second reef is feathering, Makana Pang may well be the short guy in his group but he’s definitely got no shortage of big balls.
Standing at only 5 ‘4’ and weighing in somewhere near featherweight this young man tackles the loftiest, meatiest, craziest banzai bombs he can get.
ML
Tell me about your first experiences in the ocean and riding waves.
MP
I feel like a lot of people say they remember their first wave, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. For me, I was so young in the ocean, like I don’t really remember a specific moment, but I have a general memory of just being down at Ali’i and just going there every day after school with all the friends and all the groms. And I just remember getting pushed in on the inside and boogie boarding the short break every day. And that’s kind of the first memories I have of being in the ocean and starting my ocean career.
ML
Do you remember playing other sports or was surfing just it?
MP
I mean growing up we did the soccer deal. I did the t-ball deal. And I mean, I never loved it. I liked it a bit, but I was always like, frick I just wanna go surfing. My parents made me do the team sport deal and I never loved it. There was one specific day I was probably like 10 or something, and my grandma took me down to Ali’i and I was surfing and it was firing. I was having so much fun and I was supposed to go to soccer practice and I just stayed out, skipping soccer practice. My grandma was trying to wave me in on the beach and I just stayed out the whole time.
ML
Did you ever think you’d be a pro surfer back then?
MP
Growing up on the North Shore, and going to Sunset Beach Elementary, I was obviously around the whole surf world. They had the Pipe Masters every year right across the street. I didn’t see a future where I was gonna be going off to the mainland and going to college, I only saw surfing and I knew that some way I was gonna at least make enough money to keep surfing and not have to go work a nine to five or have to go to college and try to get a corporate job. My mom always asked me, “So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna go to college? You’re gonna have to get a real job or something pretty soon.” And, um, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I put it off as long as possible. And then eventually I started making a little bit of money [surfing]. Once I started getting that first little paycheck, I was like, okay, I can do this. I know I got this. I got a couple checks from contests and stuff like that. And then as I got into like 11th, 12th grade, I was like, okay, I need a little more money. So instead of going and working at a restaurant or something, I started doing surf lessons. So I would still be in the water, at least working all summer, save up money, and then surf all winter. I started getting more and more into Pipe and that obviously pushed my career to the next level a bit. I got a lot more exposure and now I’m making a fair bit of money and I can get by and that’s all I need. As long as I can stay in the water, I don’t need to be making a million bucks. As long as I can get by, I can pay for my food, pay for my gas, pay for whatever I need to, to survive, I’m good.
ML
Let’s talk about your relationship with the Pipeline. She’s a beast and you have emerged as one of the gladiators out there. Being an athlete of smaller stature, it’s almost like the David and Goliath story.
MP
Growing up I was the smallest of the group at all times. I was always getting rousted for being the short kid. I didn’t consciously do it, but I feel like I almost used that as my motivation to push myself and go bigger.
ML
Your dad, Dennis is a great board shaper and big wave rider himself, and he’s of smaller stature too.
MP
Yeah, my dad was a good role model. Whenever like, anyone said I was too small to go out and ‘can’t do this’ or ‘can’t do that ‘cause you’re tiny’. Instead my dad took me out to 10’ Sunset, me and Moana Jones Wong with her dad, Dawson. They took us out when it was huge and we were getting 10 footers on our heads at 12 years old, you know? So we never, we never held back. My dad never held me back and I never held myself back. I kind of kept pushing and I never let that get to me too much. As I’m getting older, I’m still the small guy out there at Pipe. I feel like my size and weight can be a disadvantage at times just because it can get so windy and stuff and so I’m light and I ride a light small board so I can get caught up pretty easily in the wind there. It’s hard to get down the face sometimes, but being so light and quick and stuff, I feel like my paddle power is honestly, a lot better. Also my maneuverability is a lot better than a lot of people. So I’ve caught tons of waves where people are like, “how do you even catch that?”, I feel like it might be almost an advantage, being able to position myself and kind of sneak in and out of little situations.
ML
And earning a spot in the line up at Pipe, no easy task?
MP
Earning your spot at Pipe, it’s kind of become a lost art. The crowds are getting heavier. There’s a lot more people that are showing up that don’t really know what they’re doing, and they’re getting their confidence from social media and saying, “oh, I can do that too.” Growing up I was still in the heavy days. There were still the gnarliest guys out there when I first started. Andy Irons was still out there when I was watching Pipeline. Guys like Kai Henry, Ty Van Dyke, fricking Jamie O, even Tamayo Perry, all these guys were still out there every single session. And those were the heaviest guys. And if you were outta line, they’d let you know right away. They’ll put you in your place fast. And growing up, I knew that I was still watching guys get beat down on the beach when I first started going out there. So I knew I had to stay in line and show my respect. But nowadays it’s getting a little more crowded, a little more outta control. A lot of cameras are around so people aren’t getting properly put in their place, like how it used to be. It comes and goes. For me, I [had] put in so much time. I knew that’s how you had to do it. You had to put in the hours out there to get the respect, and then after you put in a certain amount of time, some of the boys would be like, “oh, come out a little bit. You can sit out here now,” and you have more chances at more waves. And then you show that you can– you can make the drops and make the waves. And they say, “okay, let’s get you a bigger one.” Nathan Florence guys especially, they’re kind of the group above me, Nathan, his brother Ivan, Koa Rothman, they kind of always helped my group to advance and get better in heavier situations. They’ve always kind of been our mentors.
ML
So Those guys are “giving” you waves?
MP (Chuckles) They’ve helped us a lot and pushed us, but by no means have they ever “given” us waves. Still to this day, the last swell at Pipe, I was out and I was sitting behind Nate and I was like, “Oh, I’m in the spot I’m going.” And Nate looked at me, turned around, and I was like “He might let me go.” And he didn’t look back one second and he was going straight for the burn. And I was like, “Alright, it’s still like that. Pull it back.” He’d paddle it back out. And he was like, “You really thought I was gonna give that to you?” I was like, “Frick, I had to try.” He was like, “Nope, never gonna happen.”
ML
Tell us about getting that all important invite to the Vans Pipe Masters?
MP
I’ve been in a few Pipe contests in my life. I’ve been in the Backdoor Shootout a few times. I won a Junior Pro out there back in 2018. I did a Volcom Pipe Pro and when I got the call for the Vans Pipe Masters, I was so blown away and stoked. You know, I feel like the time I put in out there finally paid off and it just felt so good.
ML
There was a round in that event where the waves were tough and dicey. Talk about that.
MP
It was honestly looking to me like, “Okay, I’m gonna have the worst heat of the day. It has morning sickness and it’s just gonna get better and better for everybody else.” And you’re not competing against the people when you’re here. You’re competing against the conditions and the opportunities that everybody else gets. So I was like, “Okay, then I’m gonna have a rough one for sure.” I got a couple waves in the beginning, You don’t have priorities so you can go as much, and as many, many times as you want. So I got a couple little foamy ones. I got one decent little ride and they didn’t score too high.
So they’re [the judges] still setting the scale. And then towards the middle of the heat, this one came in and it was kind of feathering outside, so I paddled out to it but I went a little too far and I spun around, scratched into it and I was like, about to miss it. And I was like, “I’m in the Pipe Masters, I have to freaking try as hard as I can.” I stood up and I got stuck at the top a bit and I was like, about to jump over. I was like, I’m not making it. But I was like, “Pipe Masters, Pipe Masters, you gotta at least try.” I put my head down, pushed my front foot and it barely let me in. I air-dropped, caught my rail and somehow made it under and it was kind of foamy too, so it was a real sketchy one. Somehow I made it under, then made like two sections and came out and I was like, “Hey, that was a pretty good one.” And they scored me pretty high. I couldn’t believe it. It felt so good to have one of those clutch moments. I [had] never really had one of those in my career yet.
ML
You got to love the clutch moment. You ended up runner up for the title!
Speaking of clutch moments it seems EVERY session at big Pipe is clutch.
MP
I mean every time I’m paddling out the Pipe, I’m always thinking about the risk. I feel like a lot of people are good at clearing their mind in heavy situations. Like all these big wave surfers look for someone like Nathan Florence or Tory Meister. Those guys go out and they look like they’re not even thinking, They’re just going. They’re going off instinct and they’re both calculated, you know? But I feel like my mind runs a little wild and I think about the risk a lot actually. But once I get my first wave out there I feel like it washes away and the nerves settle a bit. But there’s definitely a lot of skill and knowledge that comes into it and coming in safely and getting out of the bad situations the right way. Our crew grew up at Keiki Shorebreak, going there every single day. So we were pulling into huge closeouts on super shallow sand. You know, luckily it was sand ’cause we’ve gotten really smoked out there . But we kind of use that as almost our training, eating it over and over and over again. We learned how to fall properly. We learned how to get out of a super square wave that’s gonna crush and how to get out the back of it. We learned how to fall correctly and get right out the back every time. It’s a fine line between the safe and the unsafe.
ML
But you put yourself in some pretty wild, very dangerous situations?
MP
I feel like I have this ‘title’ of getting outta sticky situations. I’ve had a lot of scary wipeouts and I’ve come up pretty unscathed. I’ve hit my head two or three times out there. I have gone pretty flexed out there at Pipe but I have come out pretty well and [so i do] feel like I almost have earned a reputation of getting outta heavy situations. Getting out of heavy situations safely is an art. And it takes specific skills. It really does. Some people go out to Pipe and they fall on heavy waves that they don’t really know how to react in situations- and it shows -with a lot of foreigners getting hurt.
ML
But Pipe is Pipe. She really does not discriminate.
MP
Right! It doesn’t matter sometimes. Pipeline is Pipeline and she’ll show you who’s boss if she needs to.
ML
Best advice to anybody showing up to tackle Pipeline?
MP
Know your place and don’t jump the gun. Sit out there. Learn the wave by watching, not by going and getting in the way and putting other people at risk. Take the time to learn and take the time to learn who the boys are and show respect.