Big Waves.

Crumble Froo

who's surfed em?

just after watching a doco on big wave surfing "riding giants".

genuienly dont think ive ever spent so long watching something with my jaw dropped, just going 'wow'. biggest i tend to go out in locally are four, five foot faces at the max, and even then, i gotta do some serious work on committing to the take off!

looks amazing, epic to watch the big waves, and the big wave surfers, and i loved watching the dudes who practically invented surf culture.

anyway, after almost 2 weeks of not surfing, im feeling totally pumped, inspired and just wana get out in the water at hte moment, to ride the 2-5 footers on offer this week.

mostly im just feeling happy and motivated and in awe, but gotta wonder, what's the biggest you've surfed, and do you think you would/could ever go for a 20/30/40ft wave?

gerk86

the biggest iv'e been out would have been 10-12 foot faces at a beach break and honestly it was'nt a bit of fun for me. Sh!tting myself, constantly paranoid checking for outside sets, strong rips, getting caught inside and a few long-ish hold downs.

crawled out after catching a few big closeouts.

Watch this
http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/no-category/greatest-wipeouts-neil-matthies-three-wave-hold-down_25014

If that guy survived a 3 wave hold down at 40ft + mavericks I should grow a pair. lol :L

Shane_C

gerk86 wrote: »

the biggest iv'e been out would have been 10-12 foot faces at a beach break and honestly it was'nt a bit of fun for me. Sh!tting myself, constantly paranoid checking for outside sets, strong rips, getting caught inside and a few long-ish hold downs.

crawled out after catching a few big closeouts.

Watch this
http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/no-category/greatest-wipeouts-neil-matthies-three-wave-hold-down_25014

If that guy survived a 3 wave hold down at 40ft + mavericks I should grow a pair. lol :L

F**k

Crumble Froo

gerk86 wrote: »

the biggest iv'e been out would have been 10-12 foot faces at a beach break and honestly it was'nt a bit of fun for me. Sh!tting myself, constantly paranoid checking for outside sets, strong rips, getting caught inside and a few long-ish hold downs.

crawled out after catching a few big closeouts.

Watch this
http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/no-category/greatest-wipeouts-neil-matthies-three-wave-hold-down_25014

If that guy survived a 3 wave hold down at 40ft + mavericks I should grow a pair. lol :L

:eek:

yeah, that doco i watched last night had some crazy wipeouts in it, i think what got me the most was watching them not fall into the water, but onto the water, tumble a bit and then fall in.

yeah, mates have tried to get me out at taylors in 15ft faces and ive just told them where to go with it, im still tackling the 5 footers and would rather not die yet.

but i think watchin this has definitely given me some motivation to stay committed on a wave.

BraziliaNZ

i prefer small mellow ones, its too dangerous getting on big ones

loctite

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

i prefer small mellow ones, its too dangerous getting on big ones

Tis all relative to the surfer, small for you could be way too big for me!!:D

Biggest I was out in was (according to my Oz friend) 6ft in Dougmore/Clare. Felt a hell of a lot biggger than that to me though. It was throwing some serious lips and I got the worst wipeout I've ever had.

Got pile drived by the lip and was stuck to the seafloor in what had to have been about 15ft of water at least and just could not get up.. I was convinced It was lights out. Surfaced after about 10-15 seconds and took another 2 on the head. Was fearless surfing until that happened.... bit more cautious now though...

Then you watch the guys on Mavericks/Jaws/Aileens and T'po and you realise what a pussy you really are!!!

OuterBombie

Howdy,

IMO its all about experience and confidence. Patiently learning the trade breeds confidence which in turn pushes the experience. However, take a step too far (both small or large) can knock back the confidence 10 fold. Best case its back a bit and you'll work it up again, worst case, you could put yourself and/or others in danger. My point I suppose is access before you leap.

What you don't see in that Mavericks video is the number of winters these guys put in at Ocean Beach up the road in SF. I spent a summer over there years ago and even at head high(3ft) OB packs a punch. Some of the Mavericks lads spend winters out there paddling out on 10 to 15 foot days, maybe not even making it out the back. All this before they get up the nerve to paddle out at Mavs. That's dedication to learning the trade of big wave riding.

Same applies to the Hawaiian's, these guys spend years building up experience and confidence before grabbing that 10 foot gun and going for it.

BTW, biggest i ever hooked was about the 10 foot mark, maybe triple overhead and that wasn't on a soft pointbreak! I did have a 15 foot wave, maybe bigger land on me and some mates one time, I still remember the "oh sh*t" feeling I had when I popped over a wave and saw the horizon go black. I kissed my board goodbye and dove deep, the board was never see again and I had a nice 1/2 mile swim through heavy surf to complete, good times!

Good luck on your quest for the big stuff

Decos

BTW, biggest i ever hooked was about the 10 foot mark, maybe triple overhead and that wasn't on a soft pointbreak! I did have a 15 foot wave, maybe bigger land on me and some mates one time, I still remember the "oh sh*t" feeling I had when I popped over a wave and saw the horizon go black. I kissed my board goodbye and dove deep, the board was never see again and I had a nice 1/2 mile swim through heavy surf to complete, good times!

Whereabouts was this man? is that 10 foot face or 10 foot hawaiin?

Cecil Mor

You guys must be super stoked heading home after the weekend, Bic's a'flappin on the roof after tackling such heavy waves. The big drops & heavy beatings, 30second tube rides and triple overhead faces...

Fu*k me local beachie lads, I'm screwing footstraps to the NSP and towin' into Aileen's next weekend.... Oh hang on, I'm just feckin' delusional!!

Crumble Froo

hey, was just wondering actually, how do ye measure waves?

over here, 6ft face is usually about a '3 footer'. measure from the back, general rule being that the face is twice the size of the back of the wave.

failing that, waist/chest/shoulder/head high.

OuterBombie

Decos wrote: »

Whereabouts was this man? is that 10 foot face or 10 foot hawaiin?

LOL, scored a massive session at Nahoon Reef in South Africa in '98. My mate and I had returned north after J-bay and I had a new 6'10" in my bag. Nahoon was firing (we had been living close to there for a couple of months) and we went out and grabbed a few. It was close on triple overhead so about 15-20ft faces and I was straightlining it from the peak to the beach. Nahoon has this big outer peak that just jacks up (kind of like Outer Spanish) and then it settles into a wraparound right point.

Some of the local lads were charging it, including Greg Emilise (SA lad on the tour), just going bottom to top and blowing the fins out, I'll never forget it.

Over the next couple of days the swell dropped and the start of the sardine run kicked off. A local body boarder got chomped by a great white there the weekend after :eek: We only surfed it once after that.

The 15 footer was a rogue wave on the Irish West Coast maybe three winters ago. I'm still looking for the board!