sunset beach

General Discussion
1

so this triple crown commentator commentates that:

“Sunset has a reputation as the trickiest and most challenging wave to ride on the north shore…”

Ehhmmm, from my seat it looks like a lot of fun to ride, big carves… tubes too! Wow. Is he just blabbing?

Can people who have surfed the wave fill me in on the intricacies please?

Why is it difficult?

Shifting peaks? Nifty take-offs? Sections?

Does the wave always have that section at the end? Or only on north swells?

What type of board would i need for 8-12 foot sunset waves? 6ft2 - 172 Pounds

More of that yummie wave!

2

Because Sunset is a “wide open” place, kind of a bay setup with a reef, it catches swells from a variety of directions. Thus, it’s really shifty. You can chase one or another peak for hours, then get caught inside and hammered for your trouble.

Then, as Hakman said long ago, “Sunset jacks so much”, an effect of different swells peaking together in different places.

I watched a friend impatiently chase waves from north to west one afternoon. I had a little longer board and got a good number of waves. I turned around to see him deeper than I was, miss one wave then take off far too late on one that jacked, big time. About 20 of us watched in hopeless amusement and horror as he went over the falls, standing up, riding the top of the lip of a big pitching one, about ten feet behind its leading edge. He probably fell at least 15 feet vertically, and who knows how many feet horizontally. This was one of the things that Sunset was famous for… big shifting peaks that jacked up, and this was a classic horrifying example of everything gone wrong. Poor guy got badly hammered. Leash wrapped around the board three times and cut the tail almost off on each wrap. He barely got to the surface and a breath through the foam, when the next one, almost as big, unloaded full force immediately seaward of him… ensuring maximum impact. That one nearly drowned him, and fortunately there wasn’t another or he’d be gone.

What size board do you want? Depends completely on how well you surf and how big you think your rocks are. Sunset is a big place… suggest a board with a lot of paddling speed, projection, speed and a healthy side order of speed would be nice.

Not that I ever rode there too frequently… others more familiar will surely chime in.

3

Hey Charlie, thanks.

Jacking means that two wave faces go up simultaneously, doubling the height of the lip/face, right?

Don’t know what i want wrt length, what would a one board quiver look like, when the real absolute max you surf is 12 foot?

How come you dont ride there anymore? Too far away? Too busy? Is it right to assume that surfers on sunset are on average more friendly than say off the wall? Are there a lot of longboarders at sunset?

I am looking for a wave of consequence that i can surf as a haole, with the least amount of hassle from localism and assholes. And yes, dont get my hopes up, right?

Wouter

4

Yeah you sit there picking off the north swell sets, then …bam a west set swings wide and clocks everybody. Then you get sucked over towards Sunset point thinking your safe…because the whole pack is drifting that way…(the current runs from Kammies to Sunset in a huge 10 kt river sucking you right into the pit). …then Bang a big North west swell catches everybody off guard. And if that wasn’t enough you got to paddle like a mo fo to get into the wave, it’s a big open ocean, deep water wave, a wave that takes 20-30 huge strokes to get into…oh yeah one more thing once you catch the beast then you have to battle the trade winds that keep you hanging at the top of the wave for what seems like eternity.

5

its a scary ass wave

deep water reef break so the wave has allot of power and comes from many directions.

Pipe will smash you on the reef but Sunset will just flat out drown you.

two or three wave hold downs are common because that wave has so much power

usually there allot of wind too and the walls are spooky.

there’s a reason it was considered a sacred surfing spot (paumalu)

its a place where you have to have your power bottom turn mastered or your toast. So funny watching all the chippies struggle trying to hang out in that power

Need some serious leg strength to survive and rip that wave the tube ride there can really hurt too.

we have a similar secret outside reef spot here that people call the south side sunset and it amazing how much and how fast the waves pitches forward versus up like pipe or waimea.

That’s the biggest difference

takes a special breed to become a sunset master.

6

What you saw on the video is not what you remember if you think of sunset.

Gotta be one of the best places ive been.

We are really blessed to even have the chance to look at it.

In other words if ya ever go to oahu - dont miss it.

7 
Howzit oneula, Sunset will hold you down and drag you longer than most waves around the world and it doesn't want to let go. What no one has mentioned is when it get's big you have that darn ledge about half way down the face to deal with. Great wave but dangerous as possible. Best advise I ever got was " make sure you get a good lung full of air when you wipe out there". Aloha,Kokua
8

Wouter,

I'm not much of a big wave surfer, never have, never will be, but my experience there was on a day when it just starts breaking in the area of what I call Sunset proper, meaning when it shifts over from Sunset Point (closer in and further toward the point) into deeper water, basically where you see all the pictures and stuff taken. It needs at least 6 foot of swell to break here, which was about the size of the waves breaking that day. Being quite far out from the beach, it was hard to line yourself up, especially since there was only one other guy out, some GI riding an ancient longboard a little further out. You'd see a bump start coming in then wonder which way to paddle, as it would shift from the west then toward the north on some waves and vice versa. It could have been a little bigger than 6 foot, but for me I was at my limit. I caught a couple of waves, no high performance lip bashes or tube stalls, just pull of the bottom and head for the shoulder. The pros make it look so easy, riding shorter equipment out there, but on a big day, you'll probably see anything from 7 footers being ridden by the pros, to 11 foot guns being ridden by Owl Chapman. I honestly feel unless you're a pro, the average surfer would quite comfortable on a 9 ft. gun. Like I said, it looks a lot easier to surf than it really is, you'll have to get out there and see for yourself.
9

Did a quick scan of my my surf journal for Sunset and found this one from 8 years ago

Sunday December 17, 2000

10:00a - 1:00p

North Shore - Sunset

Avg wave face 10-12 feet

Sets wave face 14-16 feet, occ bigger

Clear & sunny; Calm to light variable winds

My vehicle crammed with spears, Brother Rich’s 7’9 on top of the pile, passing between the front seats with the nose just under my rear view mirror. From buoy reports & the surf cams we went expecting some hefty surf. When we topped the first hill coming over to the country, we were surprised there was not more whitewater along the coast. It was still pretty big, but not as big as we were thinking it should be.

We were hoping for a repeat of the awesome surf me & Makani caught at an outer reef yesterday so we looked from Haleiwa first, but the direction had changed more westerly so it just wasn’t happening. Next stop Jockos, but that was a no-go also, the sets were connecting all the way across and making a big mess.

Onward to Sunset, or maybe 'yards, if it wasn’t connecting/closing out. The Pipe contest was on and we had never seen so many cars parked on the mile of road fronting Ehukai. A few local homeowners sitting on lawn chairs cashing in on the action with crude signs saying “Parking- $2.” Cars were completely overflowing all the grassy lots on the mountain side of Kam Highway; On the the ocean side they pulled right into the shrubbery along Ke Iki. I heard later that the surf was the best ever for the contest.

We pulled up to Sunset and could not believe how empty the parking area was. The surf was going off (“At 11:00 a.m., yesterday morning, Sunday morning, there were no more than a dozen cars in the Sunset parking lot while dead-wind, 10- to 12-foot sets boomed off the west peak” - from this Swell.com write up )

The waves were cracking and Sunset was doing her thing. A few “names” were out, but Tommy Caroll was the star of the show, destroying the monster walls on his backhand and cutting it up in the lineup. The guy is just too cool. Besides the one biiiig local dude who would drop in with complete disregard and the few others who looked to be in over their heads, the mood in the water seemed to be “wow, where is everybody?” as reeling 15+ foot faces were picked off by us happy campers.

The waves were epic, but by noon it began to get inconsistent and the crowd started to grow. Our crew wasn’t having the greatest of sessions, but we each nabbed some beauts. Just the rush of dropping into a massive Sunset bowl and racing the wall as it fully jacks up all the way across the middle is indescribable.

“There is no other wave like Sunset. Looking down and getting over the ledge on a big wave is f**king scary.” - Brother Rich

As the sets became fewer, the wait would push us deeper and more inside looking for good waves, but ripe for serious poundings when the bombs snuck in. I got nailed hard by one such bomb… the extra meat on the borrowed 7’0" (thanks Makani) gave me good paddling speed, but I miscalculated making it past this macker. Instead of pitching out over me as I expected, the lip hit mid face on the wave, just ahead of me. I was already mid-duck and hoped I might squeak past but I got crushed. Board ripped from me as I ragdolled, dragged with the wave… then the pull of my leash went limp. Faaak…

It’s very disconcerting to be swimming so far outside and getting pounded. At least with a broken board you have a small piece of flotation. This set seemed relentless and after diving under each one, I came up gasping with less air than the last one. I knew enough to stay away from the channel and it’s outgoing rip, but I was having trouble fighting the panic, choking on the seawater of 2 foot thick froth while vicious north peaks slammed me down again and again.

A bit later, about 80 yards away Brother Rich was paddling back out in the channel and saw me bobbing in the impact zone. By then I had almost recovered my wits and waved him off. The idea is to let the whitewater push you in without fighting it too much, and it was finally working. Fifteen minutes after losing the stick I made it to the reform just off Val’s, and now I could push off the bottom after being hit by the walls of whitewater, to get air quicker.

By now I was feeling the strain of the swim but knew I was fine. A minute or two of fear but cool thinking prevailed. Plus the image of being hauled in from the channel by a rescue ski like so many clueless kooks trying to swim in against the current was prominent in my mind. But the final blow was the last twenty yards to the beach- took nearly 10 minutes of hard swimming to get past the rip along shore and all the outflowing water.

Someone had found the board and stuck it in the sand. After I checked it out (no damage! The velcro had pulled free from the plug rope), I plopped on the hot beach and kicked back for about 20 minutes before round two. While resting I grabbed “Mr. Malibu’s” Sarlo loose board (broken leash) from the shoredump and stuck it in the sand. When he finally made it to shore, he looked just like how I felt a few minutes before :slight_smile:

Round two saw more crowd and even less waves, but my last wave turned out to be one of my best ones. Late drop into a full rail bottom turn then a nice snap under the lip as Rich was paddling by hooting for me. Worked it as far as it would take me and I kicked out all smiles.

Several broken leashes and at least 4 boards broken in the few hours we were out. Our crew and boards came through the day in one piece and we were quite happy about that!

10

Wouter,

What has not been said here is that Sunset WILL reveal to you, the very stuff you are made of. You will be forced to confront, and control your most primal fears. If you go there, remember what I say next, it will only be meaningful to you after you’ve been out there on a big day. ‘‘You think you know what a 12 foot, or 15 foot wave looks like, but 12 to 15 foot Sunset is a QUANTUM leap beyond whatever your prior experience was.’’ Sunset will teach you the meaning of ‘‘he who hesitates, is lost.’’ Commitment is everything out there. If you don’t catch the wave you try for, you’ll likely take the next one on the head. The safest place to be, if you lose your board, and are swimming, is IN the impact zone. All that water is moving toward shore, and will push you in quickly. If you swim for the ‘‘safety’’ of the channel, YOU WILL BE CAUGHT IN THE RIP! It runs like a river. No exaggeration. You don’t want to be there.

Surfing big Sunset is a rite of passage, if you are serious about your surfing, and knowing with certainty what your limits are. You will never feel more alive than when you have had a successful session there, on a big day. It changes you, for the rest of your life. It is a wave of consequence.

When are you planning to go there? Send me some info about you, your skill level, and board size you are most comfortable riding, by PM. I’ll try to give you some guidence about your choice of board, for your adventure. And it will be an adventure, trust me.

11

I’ve had some amazing waves there, including two I will Never Forget. (funny how the brain works, no?) I have also had my ass handed to me on a platter. I think a 7’0- 7’6" is about minimum board size there, for me on a winter day anyway. But typically if I’m on a 7’10" I’m wishing it was a 9’ gun… can be a heavy wave, taking off blinded by spray in a howling offshore/sideshore wind, hoping for the best…

12

Wow,

Bill, Bud, KEith, all the others,

Very different stories than from what i see and read. Happy you shared that with me.

My trip to NS is planned for 1 winter month somewhere beginning 2010, january february or march. i guess not march right? As with any other surfer i too have been attracted to these waves the north shore [and other isles] have. For sure i will also have the fear of God put in me when i am there. It is still more of a thought/dream than reailty. And reality sounds cruel, hefty but also an experience of pure thrill and happiness.

Thanks all, and if you have more of those stories, or know where to find them, let me know!I only have access to magazines here.

Wouter

13

Wouter,

I was out there on a smallish day (12’ HI), getting ready to push under a west peak. Saw two experienced Sunset riders bail and decided at the last minute to do the same. Didn’t get deep enough. Wave let me go after dragging me almost to the shorebreak. I looked up at the blue surface and started swimming up. Took forever - I was so deep. Almost busted a lung waiting to get there.

On the other hand had a windy onshore Sat afternoon at 6-8’ with only a couple out (all on shortboards - hooray!). Had a ball, but still got smashed in a couple of things that looked like tubes but jacked and pitched me or just squeezed me flat. Needed longer legs than the board I was on.

Early’s the go before the crowds - lets you concentrate and pick your waves without ending up in trouble (i.e too deep and in the impact zone)

14

Wouter,

The Jan., Feb., Mar., window, is the worst time for local weather conditions. Windy, rainy, stormy, choppy! Best window is mid-Oct. to mid-Nov.

15

hey Bill, thanks for that! Mid october, just like france then…!

Regards

16 
Howzit Bill, For years I kept a weather journal and when I check it I find that there is no real true pattern for the weather. Used to be we got out konas and varible winds in Nov and after the first of the year. Well things have changed and we get these winds anytime and we are getting less tradewind days than in the past, can you say climate change? This year the surf got off to a slower start than usual but is finally kicking in. These days I tell surfers just come and hope.Aloha,Kokua
17

Wouter, never, EVER, get it into your head that those picture-perfect days at Sunset are the rule. When I moved to the North Shore in 1973, my first go-out was on a near-windless day with average 10-12’ faces and I got the most wide-open, stand-up, wave-your-arms-about tube of my life just before getting devoured by the end section before the channel. Rag-dolled is a very good description of what ensued. Being relatively young and in good shape, I was laughing about the sensation as I made my way to the beach (no one used leashes in those days at Sunset, Waimea, or Pipe). In three years on the N.S. I never saw it that clean again, and I learned that Sunset is a wave few if any truly master. Just learning the line-ups can take years–the best at the time were James Jones, Hakman, and the Lalley brothers. They could read the way the incoming sets moved across the outer reefs to determine which way to paddle to A: position to catch the wave, and B: avoid getting creamed when the waves finally reached the ever-changing impact zone. More often than not, there would be swells coming from at least two directions, and the playing field is HUGE. Most, including me would keep an eye on the alpha dogs out there and when they went on alert and started to paddle, we’d follow as quickly as we could. Ignore at your peril! Those guys were often out there on 9’ guns just so they could sit outside and cover a lot of territory in a hurry. My two favorite boards were an 8’3" pintail (for crowded days) and an 7’10" winged-pin for less crowded days. Never used longer boards out there because when it got too big for those, there was so much water moving around and my self-preservation instincts told me that my body was just too frail to endure the inevitable punishment.

All said and done, there was a time when I LIVED for that wave (actually, I lived across the highway from it) and when it became the venue of choice for the ever-growing # of contests, and good days often had water-patrol goons banning ordinary folks like me from the lineup, I sadly left there for opportunities in Santa Cruz.

If you’ve got the sack, and a good amount of patience and respect, you’ll get some of the best waves of your life out there. Good luck!

Chuck

18

Wouter:

April has a few good days left with less crowds. You can try and ease into it.

I have gotten hammered out at Sunset. You can be pushed for a couple hundred meters.

The West Peak will make your heart pump when a clean up set comes in.

Definetly worth the experience.

One spring session about 4 years ago I got Sunset that looked like 8 foot High Tide Fun easy drops and really playful.

Paddled out all calm and confident. Tide started to drop and the West Peak started firing. All of the sudden it’s like 12 foot Hawaian.

That’s what the lifeguard was calling it. He was on a 11’0 pintail. Most of the guys were riding 10’s. I was on a 7’6" Bushman.

I was so under gunned. Some of the younger local kids were surfing the inside on shorter boards however did not dare paddle outside

were the main peak was going off. It was perfect! Peter Cole at the time I believe was 70’s was catching all the set waves (No Leash).

Not sure but I think it was Lisa Anderson just shredding the waves. Schooled so many men. I was out for about three hours.

My arms were like spagetti at the end of the session. Being a goofoot I find Pipe; Rocky Lefts; Gas Cambers so much easier to manage.

When I lived on the North Shore in my late teens/early twenties I surfed mostly left breaks. I wish I spent more time at Sunset when I was

younger. It is a true surf experience that you will never forget!

SD

Sunset is a workout!

19

Wouter,

Go to wetsand.com and view the live contest surf today :slight_smile:

I heard a comment that the boards were in the 7’4" to 7’6" range today for 6ft to 8ft (Hawaiian) surf.

I’d for sure add a foot to that length for myself. But these guys are pros and are not dealing with a crowd.

Wouter,

I just tuned into the live contest for the first time today. But after watching it for awhile checked some of the video archive of the previous days on the Triple Crown site. Looks like it has been near 10ft for the whole contest. And one of the days was pretty perfect, and much much better than today! Would have liked to see that live feed :frowning: check some of the video out!

20

Hey Glenn,

Been checking both men and women on sunset through the video section.

Incredible really, looks great, but i do have way more reserve now than i did before this thread. Will still go though, April sounds good.

Wouter