Clyde Aikau injured his right rotator cuff last week while cartwheeling down his first wave at the surf tournament named after his brother, and had to paddle after every other wave with only his left arm.

And Aikau is right-handed.

“I couldn’t lift my arm,” Aikau said. “The wave pulled it and twisted it, and I said to myself, ‘Oh, no.’ I knew immediately my shoulder was gone. It’s probably a rotator cuff tear. I get one dirty lickins. I went through the whole day literally with one hand.”

The same wave that injured Aikau’s shoulder also caused him to bang his right knee so hard on his 11-foot, 8-inch, single-fin, old-school board that Aikau could not even stand between the two rounds of the one-day tournament held Feb. 25 at Waimea Bay.

He also scraped his left forearm while smashing into a reef as he headed back to shore. And he needed an intravenous drip of electrolytes to fend off a painful and persistent cramp in the back of his left thigh.

Over a lifetime surviving big waves — including 10 years as a North Shore lifeguard where he and older brother Eddie regularly made “30 to 50 rescues per day” — Clyde Aikau had never been as beat up as he was at last week’s Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau surf tournament, where 60-foot waves led to spectacular rides and wipeouts.

But a combination of adrenalin, medical attention, a cheering crowd of 25,000 at Waimea Bay and the memory of his brother pushed Aikau, 66, to nudge every part of his 5-foot-10-inch, 175-pound body that was still functioning to catch a total of four 25- to 30-foot waves at his final appearance at an Eddie and as its oldest competitor.

Some of the younger big-wave riders, Aikau pointed out, failed to catch even a single wave and others dropped out because of injuries.

Aikau won the Eddie in 1986 and had nothing but confidence as the sun came up over the bay last week.

Earlier this week, he discussed the surfing event while on a break from his day job as a part-time “homeless concerns” liaison for the state Department of Education. Aikau sat in the shade outside his DOE cubicle next to Wilson Elementary School in Kahala, a black arm sling cradling his right shoulder and a tan bandage covering the worst of his scrapes.

“I could have brought it home, even at the age of 66,” Aikau said. “I was confident I could take the win.”

He’s had other surf-related injuries, including 30 stitches in his head from crashing into the reef at Sandy Beach eight years ago.

More recently, while practicing for the Eddie two weeks before the tournament, Aikau was held underwater at Waimea Bay for three minutes by a 60-foot wave and was diagnosed with a concussion.

But nothing compared to the totality of injuries he suffered at last week’s Eddie.

Aikau insists that he never thought about quitting after catching three waves in his first round. But he worried that his left thigh would cramp up and make it impossible to stand on his Chuck Andrus board.

In between the first and second rounds, with his 22-year-old son, Ha‘a, helping him get ready, Aikau inventoried his injuries on shore and thought to himself, “‘I gotta keep going,’” he said, adding, “I was doing more praying than anything else.”

After stretching, Aikau’s banged-up right knee could suddenly bear his weight.

The event organizers allowed Aikau to be driven down the beach, where he was trailed by a friend who chanted in Hawaiian and told the history of the Aikau family and their connection to Waimea, where Aikau’s great-great-grandfather was assigned by King Kamehameha to manage the entire Waimea area as its high priest.

As he rode up the beach for the second round, Clyde Aikau received a standing ovation.

“Twenty-thousand people was saying, ‘Uncle Clyde, Uncle Clyde, Uncle Clyde,’” Aikau said. “The sound was so deafening, like the cliff is going to fall down. My body is shot. But it was like putting energy into my soul.”

Before entering the bay for the final round, where he would catch one final wave, Aikau addressed the crowd in front of him.

“I said, ‘Uncle Clyde got all bus’ up in that first round but I’m going to catch one more big wave.’ The crowd went crazy. That’s when Eddie came to me.”

In that moment, Aikau said, his mind sped across the past 49 years, back to when Eddie became the North Shore’s first lifeguard, followed two years later by Clyde in 1969.

Aikau thought about Eddie winning the Duke Kahanamoku surf tournament in 1973, then his selfless act in 1978 when the voyaging canoe Hokule‘a capsized off Molokai and Eddie disappeared while paddling a surfboard to find help, spawning the legend that lives on today: “Eddie Would Go.”

Through the voyaging canoe, “He wanted to bring the people of Hawaii together and make them proud,” Clyde Aikau said, tearing up a bit. Today, Clyde said, “Eddie’s inspiring the next generation.”