North Shore Outer Reef Session of a Lifetime

Today I caught one of the biggest waves of my life. I also saw the power of an outer reef and how if you are in the wrong spot at the wrong time, chances are your leash or your board going to be broken.

The anticipation built on Tuesday evening after an outer reef session. We caught a few solid waves and knew the swell was building. With a half moon out, I decided to check out Waimea Bay before I called it a night. Up on the hill, I happened to run into several friends who were just as pumped as I was. We talked story and watched as the swell really filled in. Every 20 minutes a set would crack on the outside bowl, then the left across the bay would crash it’s way in, and the shore break unloaded shortly thereafter with the remnants of the wave filling into the river mouth. It was on!

After an hour of morning stretching and warm-up at 5:30am, Trevor and I hunted down an outer reef. We couldn’t see much because of the misty fog hovering over the lineup, but when a set came and a tiny speck of a surfer went screaming down the face, we knew it was the spot. Several jet skis soon became visible in the channel.

The paddle out was intense because the 30 foot faces were causing the channel to close out. Our timing was good though and we made it to see a pack of 25 guys sitting deep. I took a slow approach and wanted to feel out the lineup before I jumped into the mix.

A couple smaller waves swung wide, and I was able to get two legit warm up waves. I was still feeling out the reef and noticed that even some of the bigger waves would shift more towards the channel away from the pack. Then, one of the heaviest waves I have ever seen stacked right in front of everyone. It sent us all scrambling out as fast as we could and then I saw it happen. About 15 guys got completely annihilated. It was 40 foot barrel filled with boards flying around inside of it like toothpicks as surfers dove deep to escape the cascading lip. Complete carnage went down. Broken pieces of boards were scattered and almost every single person that got caught inside had a broken leash. The next wave stacked on the horizon and swung wide right towards me. Half in shock from what just happened, and half realizing this could be an amazing ride with no one going for it; I turned and stroked hard. I started the vertical drop at a slight angle as the wave was going top to bottom behind me. The wind was blowing up the face as I started to free fall. At first my fins were in, then I felt them lift out of the water I tried to stick it but as I came down from the drop and reconnected with the face, I lost it.

I slid down the face on my back and got dealt a good pounding. Luckily, I didn’t get sucked back over the falls too bad. After I surfaced, I looked up to see a 30 foot wave coming right for me. I had enough time to get on my board, relax, and take a few strokes for the channel before I dove under. This one sent me farther down than my wipeout and I stroked 3-4 times before I surfaced and made it to the channel.

Whew! That was heavy. Meanwhile back in the lineup, the jet skis were each carrying surfers out of the impact zone and to the beach. About 15 minutes later, the chaos settled down and so did the number of people in the lineup; half were chasing down there boards somewhere near the shore. I didn’t see Trevor in all the drama and realized he caught the first wave of the set just in time to get out of harm’s way and watch my wipeout from start to finish.

I continued to play the safer strategy of sitting closer towards the channel and it paid off again when a huge set swung right towards me and stacked up towards the left. Determined not to air drop into oblivion, I paddled an extra few strokes at the top and widened my stance as I screamed down the face of one of the biggest waves of my life! I kept dropping and dropping and dropping and then made it to the bottom. The wave looked like it was building again and I raced towards the channel coming back up the face to gain speed and gliding down again plowing across bumps on the face. After the wave, I couldn’t help but letting out a good “YEAAAH!”

Everyone was rattled from that set and a little more cautious when sets stacked the horizon. The charging crew soon got back into the swing of things. Jamie Sterling patrolled for and caught some of the biggest sets. John John Florence, Kalani Chapman, and Kealii Mamala were also catching some bombs. A few got sickening barrels, including Keoni Watson. The day was mental! It will go down in my memory as one of the best surf sessions of my life.