“Not nice,” Sharkey said. “Cheating. Too easy. A ride up in the van. A ride down on the bike. Bad karma. I had to undo it.”

“How you undo?” João smiled at the idea.

“A month later,” Sharkey said. “I didn’t want to wait—I didn’t want this karma on me. I got a bike in Paia. I rode it to Makawao and kept going, up the hill, zigzagging, hairpin turns. I was gasping and that was good—I was suffering. And going slow, I saw things I hadn’t seen before—orchids, geraniums, and the amazing silversword plant that only grows there—soft spikes, so beautiful growing in the lava gravel of this volcano. I saw this stuff because I was going slow, all uphill.”

“Is the way,” João said.

“I got to the top. And it was funny. The cars that had passed me on the road were parked on the summit, and seeing me, the people began to clap, and I started to cry. I had undone the lazy ride in the van. I rode back to Paia, happy.”

“Nice story,” João said. “But you never paddle into this wave. You never—”

He was still talking, but a much bigger wave was breaking and drowned out his words.

Back in Hawaii, Sharkey mentioned towing—just the word, casually, no detail—and Moe Kahiko said, “Laird wen’ doing it. Garrett wen’ doing. Braddah Skippy. Da guys.”

“With a jet ski?”

“Ya. Da kine. Dey wen’ try tow-in.”

And when he asked further, it seemed that some surfers were being towed at Jaws, and on the biggest days at Waimea—a novelty, embraced by a few, spurned by others. Sharkey thought, I would spurn it too, but I’ve seen the wave at Nazaré, and there’s no other way to get onto it.

In the same offhand manner, on one of those Waimea days, he mentioned to Garrett that he wanted to try being towed into a big wave.

“I can show you,” Garrett said. “You’ll feel great on the wave. You won’t be tired from paddling in. You’ll just sit there and wait for a beauty.”

“Is it pono?”

“It’s practical,” Garrett said. “For some waves there’s no other way.”

“Give me a lesson.”

“You don’t need a lesson, brah. Just hang on to the jet ski. I tow you out and drop you on the wave.” He bumped fists with Sharkey. “You do the rest.”