I kind of thought of this thread as an excuse to talk about my best wave ever…Rincon, about four years ago. A big swell, 4-6 feet (6-10 foot faces). Crowded (oh really, you ask?). I was getting a few by moving inside. A big set comes. I’m scrambling for the shoulder. Someone on it, seriously charging from second (third?) point. Another one, still scrambling for the shoulder. A long boarder in early. A third one, no one on it, but I’m too late. I barely make it over the shoulder. One more, even bigger and shifting way out into the channel. It starts to break. Again I’m too late but this one’s kind of mushing so I turn to go. I get swallowed by the whitewash. Next thing I know I fly out onto the shouder belly boarding. Not exactly elegant, but hey I’m on it. The rest of the wave is double overhead and I’m just climbing and dropping, like a roller coaster, nothing fancy (no way I’m going to try to bust a big move and blow this waves). Everybody inside is just scrambling, trying to make it over and no one is even close to being in position to drop in. I make it all the way through.
When I get to the beach I ask my wife, who sitting there with a camera taking pictures, if she got me on that last wave. “Was that you?”
When we get the roll developed I find she was taking pictures of birds.
Reef Road, a little over a year ago. so deep in the barrel i said my own last rights, because there was just no way i was gonna make it. and then, she opened up and spit me out. i’ve never had that feeling ever before, or since. my friend saw me inside through the back wall…he said it was so clear it was just like looking through a window. wow, that day was perfect. when’s the encore?!?
Every one of them sees your kook out, rail dig, foot slip.
Not one sees your better waves, much less your best waves.
Just a fact in life…you are judged by how well you surf your WORSE waves, not your best.
…ain’t THAT the truth ?!!
throw a camera , or better still , a video into the mix …and my mate will get footage of the sexiest girl’s bottom on the beach for ten minutes , just as I finally catch my two best waves ever !!
Having grown up surfing on Oahu, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one, but one that stands out:
Around '86 or ‘87. A friend and I are at OTW at dawn. This was when you could get Backdoor/Pipe and OTW uncrowded and really good. If there were no cameras, there was no one out usually. And there weren’t always cameras. It was a solid 4-6 Hawaiian and probably the best waves I’ve ever surfed. To this day I haven’t seen it like that, and I check it every day. No one at some pretty nice Backdoor, and maybe 5 Japanese at OTW, which is a hair bigger than Pipe, the swell being NNW. Out to OTW I go. My hungover friend dozes in the rocks to the west of the OTW access, trying to get it together enough to paddle out. It’s hard to find a closeout this day, and just about every wave is ruler edged and throwing a spinning round barrel from peak to way down the beach. I couldn’t even count how many perfect barrels I got. At that time a bunch of Cali guys had a house just west of the OTW access. It was Cruickshank, Kevin Billy, Jimmy Hogan, maybe some other guys, too, but I was surfing with them every day out there. My friend could see and hear them up there waking up and watching it from the porch, when this one wave comes to me. A little wide of the deep spot on the crack, doubling up real long and pushing inside just a touch. I get in easy on my 7’ Rawson and as I set my edge and turn into it, it just starts throwing out so big, wayy wayy ahead of me. Wide open, not a drop out of place, I’m just driving through this really fast, but big barrel. After a bit, it gets a little warbly and sandy , and I think, “Wow, I’m going through Insanities right now!”. I’m sure some of you know exactly what that’s like out there. Still real deep, I go through that bit, then another section and am wondering, though not really caring if I’ll make it out. About that time, my buddy hears someone on the porch say, “What if he comes out of that?” to laughter. Then, you guessed it, I pop out and I hear a little roar from the gallery on the porch.
4-6 feet Hawaiian…just how big is that in normal feet? I was in Maui a couple years ago and surfed some waves that were 3-4overhead. When I asked my friend how big he’d call it he replied, “Ah, I don’t know. I don’t even say anymore.” On the way home we heard a surf report on the radio that said, “…two feet and trying.” I was like, “Two feet!!! Come on! That was not two feet!” My friend just shrugged and said, “Hawaiians have big feet.”
um i have to go into two different catergories for this one, sponge(luagh if you want) and surfing
on a bodyboard it was the day after thanksgiving two years ago just me and mdad out at the beach infront of my beach house 5-6 foot faces and 30 mph offshores. I get in and don’t even bottom turn just pull right in the barrel and get in the barrel for 45 yards before getting spit out of it.
JLW might remebr this one i was out just two beaches from my house and it had been pretty good that day, alot of the waves weren’t barreling all the way through but the big one of the set comes and it stands up i drop in pull in backside and get the first clean in and out standup barrel of my life.
4-6 feet Hawaiian…just how big is that in normal feet? I was in Maui a couple years ago and surfed some waves that were 3-4overhead. When I asked my friend how big he’d call it he replied, “Ah, I don’t know. I don’t even say anymore.” On the way home we heard a surf report on the radio that said, “…two feet and trying.” I was like, “Two feet!!! Come on! That was not two feet!” My friend just shrugged and said, “Hawaiians have big feet.”
A 6 foot Hawaiian scale wave is anywhere from 12 to 16’ face depending who you ask. I usually use the chest high, head high, 2 feet over head etc when trying to accurately describe to friends how big it is. The first swell this season on the North Shore had waves I used to call 8’ and some were calling it 10’. I ended up calling it 6’+. It didn’t matter what feet anyone called it when the sets caught us and beat the shit out of us. Haha!
Another thing I’ve been doing lately is just calling everything over 4’ face 2 feet. This past Saturday the remnants of Hurricane Jova gave us a fun little swell that was way overhead at our secret spot and I swear it was a SOLID 2’! When it gets 4’ on this scale I don’t even go out!
Great! Thanks for the clarification. That means my best wave ever, at Rincon as described above, was a solid two foot. Biggest wave I ever surfed? Two feet. Waves lately? Guess we’re talking inches now.
I’ve surfed so many bad waves in my life that it’s amazing I keep going out there. (by bad I mean both the wave quality, and what I manage to do with it!).
One wave that sticks out as memorable for an interesting reason was in Japan in the 90s. My regular board at the time was an early Al Merrick twinfinner (much more volume than how he shapes them now). It was dinged up one day when we were getting some good shoulder high waves and my friend who owned a shop there told me to take something from his personal quiver. He grabs this impossibly minimalistic thruster and says, “one of the asp pros gave this to me after the marui pro, it should work”.
I paddled out on it and was talking to one of the regulars (a japanese ex-pro pothead) and said, “man, i don’t know if i can ride this tiny board.” He assured me I could and you know he was right. Missed the first wave I paddled for but adjusted and grabbed the second. The board was so light and of course way more able to go vertical and I just smashed that wave all the way down the line. Probably still looked like a kook but felt like a pro. Of course I had ridden thrusters of 80s design but this was my first wave on the minimalistic slater-esque new school boards. I had poo-pooed them as ridiculously lacking in practical qualities for normal surfers. But that session made a believer out of me that in the right conditions, even I could have much fun on them!
I mention this wave because it’s the only reason I keep a short thruster in my quiver these days. Only get one or two good shortboard thruster days here a year (and lots of big thruster days -i have a 6’11" too), but I’ll always keep a 6’3" or shorter thruster around for just these days. Hey, who knows, we may get a good day soon. Or I could get off my ass and drive north or south and find good medium size punchy waves and get the dust off that 6’3"…
Caught it in December of 1951. Sometimes it’s smooth and glassy, a nice wall to cruise, I get a nice rhythm going then suddenly it pitches over a boil, the wind comes up and the chop wants to throw me off. Gotta keep cool and smooth through those sections. Sometimes I have to be patient through the soup, hoping it’ll back off and I’ll be back in the clear. Other times it’ll jump up to 4XOH my heart is in my throat and all I can do is hold on…so far, I’ve made every section and things look pretty smooth as I round the point. It’s backing off a bit so some cutbacks would be nice. Looks a like a little crowd is gathering down the line…sure be nice to share the ride.
Most memorable wave - surfing a place that had the late afternoon sun in my eyes. Took off on a head high wave that usually was good for about a ten second ride before having to pull out or straighten out. Instead of watching the wave, I got enthralled by the sparkle on the water 100 feet away, 100 yards away, half a mile away, with all the other peaks doing their own little bends and variations and the incredible scenery further along the coast. That wave may have well as lasted 5 minutes because I was able to absorb all that beauty as I looked and rode.
I’ve surfed plenty of 12’ Sunset when MichaelHo was calling it bigger than 10’ for sure.
I"ve been in the water plenty times at Pipe when everyone calls it 10’ +.
And the one real Wiamea day, not Pinballs, even the lifeguards checking us out called it “23’” or bigger.
Exactly the same as I’d call it, from SanFrancisco…
Haha! I hear you. The whole wave size thing is pretty funny. Here in Hawaii over recent years the State run weather service had to start calling wave heights by actual wave face due to liabilities and the dangers of people getting killed due to a “6 foot wave” that actually has an 12 foot or larger face. The reason we play around with the wave size thing among our friends is now everybody is all screwed up calling wave sizes so we just do this “2 foot” thing as a spoof.
You can go on-line when there is a swell and see 4 different wave sizes for the same day. Hahaha! Do you guys remember the whole Pat Caldwell thing when he was using Hawaiian scale for the State run surf forcasts? He got shut down… Now he’s back with the actual face size which is the TRUE WAVE HEIGHT. Not the back, not two thirds of the face, not half the face but the actual height of the wave. This is the most accurate way to measure but none of us long timers in Hawaii are willing to say something like “I just surfed 10’ Kaiser’s Bowl!” or “Chun’s was an epic 12!” or “Jocko’s was a roping 20’+!” As you know 10’ Sunset is not 120 inches high!!! But it sure sounds weird if you say 20’ to 24’ Sunset on what we know as a 10’ day. For me and my friends it’ll always be 2’. I rarely go out bigger than 2’. Heck, some 2’ days scare the crap out of me! 2’+ IS JUST PLAIN SCARY!!! Hehe…
Gotta admit, your measurement MAKES a surfer prove himself out in the water.
I hate it when your 6’ Haliewa kicks my butt, closing me out on the inside section, and wide swing sets just crush me.
Worse, your barely breaking 8’ Pinballs still needs a full gun…for practice and to snake a few…
Kinda the anti California Bar scene, where every dude is a “surfer” who just came in from 15’ super hollow waves sucking out on sharp, lava rocks …smile smile…