Wow. Jaws is heavy.  Below is a clip of a wave I got out there on Sunday January 19th… working on getting a better angle to see the whole wave.

That day was unreal.  18-20ft, glassy, light offshores, bluebird skies, a manageable crowd… “pleasant” by Jaws’ standards.   I would not describe Thursday, January 23rd’s session, which was apparently much more normal, in the same way.  Gloomy, rainy skies, rogue 25ft bombs coming through, about a two foot wind swell in the face from the heavy side onshore winds… scary.  I’m thinking wow the consequences are serious out here, you had better be on your game, and as I’m paddling up this mountain I look over to see Dorian whip it at the last second and stroke his 10’6 down the face of what looked like some double black diamond run peppered with moguls, which he makes of course.  This is all once you’ve made it out to the lineup.  Getting in is just as scary if not more so than actually surfing the wave.  The jump in at Jaws is comparable to Waimea shorebreak, only it detonates onto car sized algae-covered boulders.  And don’t forget there’s about a thousand people with cameras watching to see how gracefully you can pull this one off.. no pressure.  I saw guys who timed it wrong get picked up, slammed and pin-balled through the rocks, ruining their boards, and needing to be rescued by onlookers before they had even gotten out there.

As stressful as each and every session was, I will have to say it was all worth it for that one wave though.  When I found myself alone out the back and saw that one stack on the horizon, I knew it was my time.  I glided right in on the 10’6 Rusty, made my way down what seemed like a forever face, was able to put all that board on rail and drive up the face of this bowling wall.  Before I knew it, the lip starts feathering and within an instant goes horizontal over me and I’m inside this school bus barrel.  At this point I’m thinking alright, be ready for it to clamp and take the beating of your life, but that beauty stayed wide open and let me out safely into the channel.  I’m still in shock and get chills every time I rethink that view.  Wave of my life, hands down.