Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25036
one
report 28 feet with a 21
second interval-indicating wave faces up to 60 feet. The swell was due to arrive from the northwest in approximately ten hours. I was instantly dosed with enough adrenaline to kill most people. I double-checked the reports and waited for the next hourly reading. It was like anticipating an Everest summit attempt for the next morning. Too excited for the sleep I needed, I woke up every hour checking my watch. Finally I got out of bed at 4:30 AM. The coffee brewed as I checked the latest reports from the computer. All indications were that this was the real deal. On January 28th the Hawaiian Islands were hit with the largest swell in over a decade. The
Maliko channel at Jaws had waves of 20 feet. We had to time our assault just right or we'd never make it out there-and some didn't. I sat in the channel for a while observing the largest, steepest blue mountains ever. The roaring sound combined with the falling water was like being at the base of a waterfall . Suddenly I knew it was time. I grabbed the handle and got towed out into the take-off zone. I rode several 20-foot waves to loosen up. Then, on the outside, I saw this beast coming right at me. It was bigger than any wave I've ever seen. My tow-in partner towed me perfectly into place at the summit. I peered down the throat of this mountain with a face of at least 60 feet. I released the handle and went straight down. The wind was pushing me back up, my legs flexing and absorbing the bumps. In surfing waves like these, you have to keep pushing down on the fins and rail that are holding your board in trim. It's just like snowboarding at full speed in front of a huge avalanche-on purpose. Any mistake and you're buried. Traveling at 35 miles per hour down the water's rugged face, chased by the whitewater, on this
little piece of foam and fiberglass, I angled for the channel. I made the channel untouched and knew instantly I had just pushed my big wave experience to the limit.-Buzzy Kerbox
CHANNEL: an area of deep water where waves don't breal<. Generally, water flows bacl< out to sea through channels. Paddl ing through a channel is the easiest, safest, most efficient and way to access the surf.
SURFING BEGAN IN THE 18005 WHEN
HAWAIIANS RODE WOODEN LOGS ON SMALL rt~II~~I~J0 WAVES. IN THE LATE 19505 AND EARLY 19605 ~
SOME CALIFORNIAN AND HAWAIIAN SURFERS THEY RODE THE FIRST 15- 25 FOOT WAVES AND H~~!!~!r!r!!!rr.~~~~~~!!~:.... _____ JI~
BEGAN TO PUSH THE BIG WAVES ON OAHU'S NORTH ~~~~~;;;~~~~~~~~~~~ AND WEST SHORES (WAIMEA AND MAI