The biggest surf mural in the world is located in Honolulu, Hawaii. It’s in Kalihi and is very easy to access. The mural was revealed in late 2013 and has yet to be championed by another surf mural as the biggest. It’s about 5 stories tall and takes up almost 14,000 square feet. It’s a huge painting of the wave at Pipeline. The artist’s specialty is actually waves and he hand painted all of the small wave details in the mural. Surprisingly it only took him 8 days to do the entire thing! I know it would take me a lot longer, and it wouldn’t come out as nice. However, it did take him over 6 months of planning before he started actually painting. Alves had to raise almost $10,000 and collect almost 150 gallons of paint to do the entire mural. It truly is a sight to see and I would highly recommend visiting it while you’re staying in Hawaii.
I look so tiny compared to the rest of it!
The artist
The mural was designed and painted by Hilton Alves, a Brazilian artist who is based on the north shore of Hawaii.The artist, Hilton Alves, has more work on his website TheArtOfHilton.com and also has his work in the Wyland Galleries in Waikiki and Haleiwa.
Directions and parking
The mural is on the corner of Waiakamilo Street and Kalani Street, and there is parking right in front of it for free. It’s pretty obvious when you see it, you can’t miss it. I visited the mural on a cloudy day in the winter, and the lighting wasn’t that great. I would recommend seeing it during the summer when you’ve got good lighting all 3 months. The mural is in a slightly sketchy area, but I wouldn’t worry that much if you go during the day. Also, you’ll probably only spend 10 minutes there taking pictures and admiring it before you’ll want to leave.
Biggest surf mural Oahu
The mural is really gorgeous and if you don’t get a chance to make it up to the North Shore (although I highly recommend you do,) this life size painting of Banzai Pipeline can make up for it. If you’ve got a nice Nikon or Canon high definition camera, I would definitely bring that along and take some cool shots of the mural. Also have your iPhone handy so you can take a killer panoramic shots of the mural as well!
