surfing and wave sailing

I'm surfed out!!!!!! and that's a good thing since you couldn't buy a wave on this island till maybe Friday. It's catch up time for me. I had better hurry and rest because if the forecast and wave models for the north pacific are correct I'm gonna be busy come the week end!
Trundlebum, I dug your post on super topo!
THE warrior has fallen !
Who among you will pick up his lance and CHARGE???!!!!

Yes Christian, that's a sic barrel
(My guess is Puerto or Costa Rica?)

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Olaf re: your post from June 27.
"smooth head high and better summer south swell waves to the back drop of an unbelievable Lahaina sunset!"

Sounds like the Lahaina harbor break wall?

I will never forget the first time I surfed the break wall.
It was about head'n half high. After a couple inside waves I headed for the peak.
I caught one beauty all the way from almost the inside moorings to the harbor mouth corner of the break wall.
As I was getting towards the wall there was about a 2' reverb coming off the break wall itself.
Seeing it coming I hit it and olly'd. But the little reverb was steeper and my speed was way faster than anticipated. I got launched into this uncontrolled flight and landed on the side of my face. When I surfaced all I could do was laugh and giggle the whole paddle back to the peak. My face was so red and stinging from the impact. I just kept chuckling too myself "Hey that's a fast little buggah, I like this place!"
The fact that I am goofy and it's a long left is a huge attraction for me.

Where is 'Toilet Bowl'?
Is that the little break just outside Lahaina town that is a tiny point (breaks right) with a few ironwood trees on the water's edge. The place I am thinking about is much closer to Lahaina town then to 'Thousand peaks'.
If so...
One time I unexpectedly caught it super fun, while on my way to a 'Hornsby' show at the Lahaina tennis stadium.
Leaving Paia town on the way to the show I ate a... well let's just say Timothy Leary was with me that afternoon.
So, I caught the place head high, glassy, crystal clear water, no one out.
What a trip (forgive the pun) I caught about 10 or more waves while my date hung around and swam. I got out of the water, watched a Lahaina sunset with her and then off to a killer good show ;)

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Wave snakes.
2many stories, but here's one I'll try to make quick:
Hilo, Bay front, when it rarely happens it's a real treat.
The swell has to be large and completely a north direction (no westerly at all)
It's a great wave and one of the longest rides in the islands.
I was out on this killer 'Gray slate' day, drizzle, overcast and not a hint of wind.
Paddling back to the peak after a ride I was staying well outside the shoulder as the better set waves travel significantly further down the line.
I see a set rolling in, it's a big one for the session. This big dude on a full blown tanker takes off, burning a local on a short board that was already in and 'pitted'. The local didn't do much as the long boarder was so far out on the shoulder that he merely took the take off and initial fast section then kicked out. The long boarder kept with it.
So here I am on a relatively unmarred 'Johnny V' 7'6", way out on a very soft shoulder watching this tanker captain come out of a fast section, no cutback, no real maneuvers of any kind, just blazing along with all this left over speed way, way out on the shoulder.
I was watching, then yelling, then yep, you guessed it, this goof ball proceeds to mowe me down even way out on the shoulder. I bailed off the opposite side of my board at the last second and dove for the protection of the depths. I surface to find this guy had hit my board so hard that he drove his skeg about 10" into the rail of my board.
What to do? He was a huge (and obviously not very intelligent) dude!
So I did what any skinny, 'local kine haole' with a sense of delegation would do. I purposely paddled back to the very peak and sat amongst 4 - 6 gnar, gnar local bruddahs, and waited. Sure enough some one who had caught the scene paddles back out and asks if I am OK? I said I was fine but not sure about my board, which was not the truth I knew it had a massive rip in the rail and was taking water as fast as the Titanic, I should'a gone in but I wanted a little justice.
I rolled off my board and flipped it over right there amid the crowd at the peak. I let out a nasty expletive or two and that got the attention of the locals who immediately wanted to know, WTF happened?. I calmly told the story and pointed at the long boarder repeating, "That dude is dangerous watch out for him, he could hit yah even if your moored over in radio bay.
Too this a local starts yelling at the guy what a snake and ass hole he is. The long boarder was willing to beef with the one dude but in short order there were 5 guys around him in the water and it was not a pleasant conversation they were having. The long boarder paddled, not surfed, paddled immediately towards the beach never to be seen from (by me any way) again in the Puna area.

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Re Maui, sou' swell surf:
Olaf: "The reason no one thinks of Maui as a south swell destination is it isn't near as dependable as Oahu on account of Big Island"

True, true. When Dumps and La Paresse are mack'n you can't help but wonder how epic it must be at places like ka'alu'alu in Ka'u district, sou' point, Big Isle, or town side Oahu.
But.... Just like the North Kona coast, some of the best 'south side' sessions happen when it is a big, and straight westerly swell. I have seen days when even Honolua was going off but the north shore flat.
One of my favorite small breaks (like toilet bowl) for sou' or westerly, south side surf, is a place in Wailea called 'side walks'. Super fun wave. An easy take off into a 'back door'able' bowl (going right or left) then a decently long ride on a wave that peels medium slow but has a nice steep pit (multiple roundhouse's with a slam off the lip) before a sandy, beach front, close out (mega floaters with nothing to loose).
I'd post a pic but I looked and realized they are still in storage in Puna.

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Surfing and wave sailing thread on a climber forum...
(hats off to kicking off a killer thread Olaf)

John Bachar
What can be said ?
He became my climbing hero when I bought a copy of George Meyer's 'Yosemite Climber'.
Not long after, for 4 -5 years I was a bit of a 'fixture' in Camp4 and had a few conversations with him in the outdoor, climber gym at the rescue site. Those brief interactions left me in awe. The man was at the top of his game and perhaps the best free climber/ free soloist in the world at the time (lest we not forget the 10k standing bet of the time).
The man was huge, his ego was not!
He would laugh and trade beta with anyone.
My first pair of non EB, friction soled shoes were bought from JB in Camp4.

How many times... I'd be at the cookie grunting my way up something just to see him come motoring by on his circuit that included most of the classics at the crag.
Imagine, Crack-a-go-go, Outer limits, Catchy corner and the whole of the Nabisco wall (including Butter Balls of course) free solo as a morning warm up circuit.

A year or so ago I caught JB's slide show at a local gym.
Again I was awestruck!
Our voices and eyes never change. They are our true signatures whether you gain or loose 100 lbs, the voice stays the same.
In my 20+ year sabbatical from climbing a lot had changed, but not JB.
I caught him right before the show and we talked briefly. Yep same guy! Same supportive smile and demeanor.
I mentioned I had heard about the car crash he survived and lost his biz partner and how I was glad to know he came through Ok. I mentioned I bought my first pair of 'Fire' shoes from him and he laughed (in light of Acopa today) and said "Oh God those things, they were so terrible, painful etc... but the shiz of the times 'eh?"
When I mentioned that I had not climbed in a few decades but moved to Vegas to "get back at it" he looked at me with a big smile and said "Well, welcome back brother" and with a smile and a shake he was off to do his presentation.
What a guy! "Welcome back brother"... was he talking to a potential Acopa supportter? Was he talking to a life long friend like J.Long, R.Cashner or Werner.B? No!, he was talking to some no name, washed up old fart that was out snivelling that day on a .10a !

Olaf said:
"THE warrior has fallen !
Who among you will pick up his lance and CHARGE???!!!! "

When you take a look at Clint Cummin's supertopo thread
Bachar timeline supertopo.com/climbing/thre…
you realize JB not 'one in a million'...

he was far more rare than that!

~~~~~~~~~

Ok I am off to go night riding in BootLeg Canyon ;)
(beat the heat)

Hay trundlebum, thanks for posting your valued input. I really enjoyed your wave snake story!

Those sunset seshes were at” Woody’s” between Launiupoco and Guardrails. You can see “Lahaina Brake Wall” from “Woody’s”. The legendary Woody Brown was the first to surf the spot and did the excavating of the rocks that allowed a small amount of sand to build up over the years. It’s just a peak on the side of the road and has room for three cars on the makai side. There’s plenty of parking on the mauka side but it’s treacherous to get across the hiway in traffic. It has a very rocky launch with only one slight sand spit with tons of sea urchins everywhere else. It dose keep the crowds down. It has a decent left and good right. It’s best when it’s just a bit over head with a moderate tide. It tends to close out when it gets much bigger, although, it held up well in near double over head conditions of this last south swell. The swell direction and tides were favorable. We were just plain lucky that’s all.

There are several sopts known as Toilet Bowls that I am aware of on Maui.The one you mentioned is new to me. The one that I refured to is between Papalaua(thousand peaks) and Olowalu. It fires a fast left and right but is so shallow that it’s only doable in a very high tide. I haven’t surfed it in a few years. It doesn’t work all that often, but when it does it's real good!

The thing about surfing and wave sailing great conditions almost every day for a long time (about 6 weeks straight) is the let down when the conditions deteriate. I just don’t know what to do with myself! Pathetic on my part, don’t you agree?

I had an interesting long board paddle a couple of mornings ago. My girlfriend (Karen) had an equipment failure while Kite boarding out by Pier 1. This resulted in her losing her entire rig (kite/board). I won’t go into the technical details but she was looking at a very long swim. A fellow kilter helped by towing her back to the beach with his kite. The board was recovered by a fisherman near the water treatment plant but the kite never surfaced. The kite was a new Cabrina and worth about $1500.00. I paddled the coast from the last sandy beach to the other side of the harbor hoping to locate and salvage it. I hadn’t paddled very far when the wind kicked up to about 30knts. And created shoulder high, messy, wind slop. It was intimidating paddling so close to all the concrete pylons from the old harbor that were piled haphazardly creating a surreal, apocalyptic setting. Toss in some strong current and I think that you get the picture. I didn’t find the kite but I tried. If you play you got to pay! Oh well, Karen is back on the water with a new Cabrina kite that was pretty much comped to her by Neil Pryde ! Ahh! da bro deal! Being local has its privileges!

Last Sunday I joined my friend Mark Cosslett and four other folks for some climbing in Maliko Gulch. I was impressed with the quality of the sport routes that Mark had developed. There were three routes in all, an 11+ and two stiff 9’s. They were solid, clean and steep. One of the guys with us was a guide in the Valley for many years so we had lots of stories to share and many common acquaintances. This was the day that Bachar fell but we hadn’t heard the news yet. We discussed soloing and the soloist that we know and had known including John. One quote that I remember from our conversation at the base of this cliff in the most beautiful tropical setting was a quote from I think Michael Reardon “If you are a competent soloist you have probably a one in one thousand chance that you might not make it. If you keep it up you eventually solo over a thousand routes!”
There’s room for some more good climbs in Maliko and I hope that I get to join in when they go back.

I just got home from a delightful summer north shore wind surf sesh!

Olaf:
Your hunt for the kite story brings back some memories.
I have been meaning to ask you if you have had a chance to sail outside Kanaha on a good day.
That is one of the most fun, long and non intimidating wave sailing breaks, unfortunately crowds prove it so when it's going off.

Talking about paddling across the harbor mouth (can you say LandLord?)
There is an awesome cloud break way out, straight off the east side of harbor entry.
The paddle out is forever but again, when it's in good nic it's a huge wave.

I had talked about the break at Hilo Bay front.
You reminded me... I used to love surfing Waiehu point.
It is not often in good nic on account of the trades.
However on a good sized North, with no trades...
Let the rock stars have Lanes, I'd be with the local bruddahs down at Waiehu.

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Climbing:
When I moved to Maui there was no such thing as 'sport climbing'.
Sport climbing (ethics) have certainly opened up a lot of possibilities...
when not restrained by 'Ground up, on the lead' ethics.

Olaf do you know Rob Lescher?
A few years before I left the islands, I was over from the Big Isle, visiting on Maui.
I went into some shop in Kahului near the 'Airport triangle' because I heard they had a small climbing wall.
I had to pay a bike mechanic his $10.00 an hr to belay me but it was the first time I yarded on plastic holds so it was worth it for a go. The wall was nothing but jugs so I was doing laps when in walks Rob. I knew Rob from a previous lifetime in Yosemite.
Rob was just getting into wave sailing and I had no sailing gear with me, so for fun I showed him a crag out in Kaupo that we spent two days at tope roping. It is a fabulous little overhanging, basalt wall rising out of black sand at the waters edge. Between the rock quality and scenic position (on clear day you can see the snow caps of Maunaloa/Maunakea above the clouds over the channel).
Super fun place to climb. I used to drive my truck off the pi'ilani hywy road down a pasture path/dirt ranch road and park on top of the cliff and use the rear axle as my top rope anchor.

There is as well an extremely over hanging wall waiting to be developed that is a few miles shy of the previously mentioned crag which in turn is about 6 miles shy of the Kaupo store when coming from the Ulupalakua side.

And back tracking further towards Ulu, what about that 'Manawainui' gulch?
That has huge sport potential once some of the above, objective dangers were trundled.
Were Manawainui meets the sea there is some possibilities as well.

Another possible that I never checked out would be on the southern slopes of Haleakala.
When you are dumps you can look up at the last active flow on Maui. Up on the edge of that flow is a large cave I heard called 'skull cave' because of the skulls that were originally found inside.

trundlebum, IMO: Lower Kanaha is one of the premiere down the line wave sailing breaks that I have ever experienced! I have had many magic sessions there. I think that it easily compares with the long pealing wave at Punta San Carols, Baja Norte! The crowds,well what can I say? The evening executive wave sailing sesh is my personal favorite, it's usually the same crew at Lowers each evening in the winter,the wind is lighter so the wave is smoother.

I just love longboarding the peak at Lower Kanaha as well. It can be a very heavy wave and breaks a lot of boards when it gets some real size.
The lefts can be phenomenal with a great channel and the rights so long that it is a commitment to ride past the third section. That's what I call a LONG paddle back to the peak!

Speaking of the landlord, I saw a good size shark while windsurfing in front of "Mammas Fish House" a couple days ago. It was real windy and he was just cruising along at the surface. It was truly very cool.

The same sesh I spooked several schools of flying fish. you know what that's like with them hitting you all over the place and bouncing off of your sail then flying away again. Really fun stuff!

Rob Lechser and I worked a clinic at the cliff you mentioned at Kaupo. We were helping the local Boy Scout troupe earn their merit badges for Rock Climbing. I have only been back to that cliff one other time and should go back again soon for some (off the bumper) top roping. Talk about accessible!

I have hiked back to the other wall that you mentioned also. I feel that it is prime for some sport FA's. The logistics of protecting it might be the initial crux. I was entertaining maybe a long extension ladder to clean and protect that face? Ground up would be very sketchy with the quality of the stone back there.

We have just had a great three day south swell episode! There was NO noticeable island blocking at all. I watched waves peal "right hand" for over a quarter mile.
I was surfing the peak at Woodys and was too far outside. I didn't ride any of them but I watched two guys get some great rides. By the time the wave got to Woodys it had lost size and power but it was still pealing right along.

Two of the days last week I double dipped, surfing south shore in the morning and wind surfed north shore in the evening.

Another south swell event is forecasted for middle of next week. I sure hope that it is as good as the one we enjoyed this week!

I joined four of my palls for a very wound up down wind coast run from Kuau to Kanaha yesterday. I was totally lit but still in control with a 68 ltr. Quatro wave board and a 4.4m Goya wave sail.
The trades have been blowing for days now and the wind has created some great open ocean swell.
It is really cool to ride waves that you get numerous bottom turns on and they are soo smooth! The best one was out side camp 1.

Finally something to write about, 2 days of chest to head high surf. Rode my new 8.0' fire wire and it's performance was great - worth every penny spent on it. I still can't believe how this board accelerates and turns. Looking forward to bigger surf.

"Roger that", Fat Paul!
Congrats on the new board!
I had been looking at my all time favorite long board that I buckled two seasons ago and never repaired. I finally took it to Dave Mell (Peter Mell's cousin, and the guy that shaped it) I gave it to him to repair. I am soo stoked to be riding it again soon. Dave named it the "aggro tank"!
I hope your waves stay around for the rest of the season and beyond!
It's been real good around here cept for a couple of days last week.The last three days have been absolutely tremendous but that's just my opinion.

Hay trundlebum, Many posts back you asked me if the weekend summer racing series at Kanaha Beach Park was still going on and I am here to tell you that it IS and in a big way! I stooped buy the park last weekend after surfing the south side to maybe get in a little bump and jump sesh and the place was a full on festival of stars in the windsurf world. I am surprised that Windsurf Magazine wasn't there covering not only the racing but the crowed of spectators. The list of heavies is to big to even start but let's just say that most every sail and board manufaturer was represented by their riders and designers. Not only was there racing but some of the best freestyle/ bump and jump aerialist on the island were going off big time at wave break at "Uppers". It was just a little to busy for me so I chose not to rig and sail there. Instead, I launched At Kuau and my buddy "Piano Mark Johnstone" pro sailor and key board player for the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band had our own privet expression session at the break in front of Mamma's Fish House.
Hay Fat Paul, I just checked out Fire Wire surf boards on the internet. They definantly have a progressive company and a great line of surfboards. Which module 8'0' did you decide on? Did you know that they are on the cover of "Entrepreneur" magazine?
BTW: Dave Mell called yesterday and told me that "The Aggro Tank" was definantly worth fixing and he would do the repair for $60.00! I AM SO STOKED !

Just got back from a week of vacation on Montauk Long Island. Had consistent surf all week with some nice clean barrels on Thursday. Back at the office today - bummer.

The excitement around here is a hurricane named Felicia. She's sitting out in the middle of the Pacific and has waves directed straight at the Hawaiian Islands.Pat Caldwell of the National Weather Service and our wave forecast guru is calling for a watch on Sunday and a warning on Monday for our east shores. We should (hopefully?) get some wrapping here on the north shore. If our trade winds hold as they are now we are in for some great summer wave sailing. Most of our (K.Y.C.) gang are back on Island after their summer safari's and are ready to explode.

Now,these are extreme athletes in a very extreme place!
youtube.com/watch?v=E91pK-2…

Olaf, Good to hear that your Aggro Tank can be repaired. I see that Felicia has been downgraded to Cat 1 but looks like it will track right over the islands. Appears you'll have plentiful waves and wind, enjoy! No development here on the right coast but we are moving into prime cane season. We have had a very unusual weather pattern this summer, so its hard to say what will happen. Off to OBX in 2 weeks. Hopefully, there will be a wave down in NC. By the way, my 8.0'is a fire flex squash tail.

Fat Paul, Felicia may surprise us but as of now she's only giving us some much needed rain and she seems to have stalled our trade winds so WTF ?

I'll bet you've visited Hatteras many times.
I have only been there once about 30 years ago. I'm sure that it's changed alot.
It was September through October and the island was pretty much deserted (after the national amateur surfing championship event)that is except for a bunch of surfers and fishermen.
I remember it to be one of the coolest places that I have ever been to.
I surfed various spots like The Light House,Avon Pier,Old Road, Frisco and some others that I can't remember the names of.
I lived in my van at Frisco Woods Camp Ground with all the other Nomadic east coast surfers.
That, was as cool to me as a young surfer dude as living Camp 4 in Yosemite was when I was a young climber dude!
My experience on Cape Hatteras that season solidified the notion that I wanted to be a surfer and live in a place that I can surf every day that there are waves, when I grew up.
We would surf when there were waves and clean fish at the docks when there weren't. We would get a little cash and some fresh fish.
We REALLY ate well in camp every night was a feast
Everyone there was so cool.

I remember surfing at Old Road one really big day.
It was closing out so, really, all we were doing is dropping in and kicking out after one turn.
On one wave I was late and got sucked over the falls and I got worked real bad.
My leash got wrapped around a log or some sort of post that was buried in the sandbar below the surface. Also some how the strap connecting the leash to my leg was tangled at the same time.
I was literally tethered to the bottom in pounding waves.
I couldn't get a breath between the waves.
I almost drowned!
Somehow, I broke the leash!
If it had been a modern one like I use now I couldn't have broken it. I remember swimming in and sitting on the beach with my face in my hands feeling soo numb.
When my buddies came in one of them said to me, "I saw you flailing in the impact zone and heard you screaming! I thought that shark had got you so I didn't want to get close. Then I saw you on the beach and I figured you were OK"

If your in the neighborhood and are just cruising go by and say hay to my friend Andy McKinney. He owns "Sail World Cape Hatteras" and is a very cool guy. He and I shared some great waves at Kuau last winter when he was here on Maui.

Have a great trip Fat Paul! I look forward to your report.

Yo Olaf,

Many trips to the Cape and some unforgettable nights at Frisco Woods campground. Flat spells are particularly hard, especially if the fish aren't biting and usually leads to much beer consumption. We wore out our welcome at the campgrounds on several occasions. It seems that everyone who has been there has some memorable story about their visit. During my last trip, I was bombarded with lead fishing weights by these Amish women fishing off Rodanthe pier while surfing the north side. Those holy women could cast pretty good and nearly clipped me twice. I kept asking them where the love was and they just shook their fist at us. Mr. grey suit also came calling and restored order by clearing the water. Olaf, I'll look up your friend Andy when Im there.

We just went through our first Big NW swell event here on the north shore of Maui. It was all that we could hope for! Five days of waves and strong consistent wind made for some great wave sailing! As Summer Nemora the owner of the Kuau Mart(the little local store that every surfer,wave sailor,and kite surfer drops by for beer and munchies)said to me yesterday,"Every surfer on the north shore looks like they've had the shit kicked out of them!" I personally took two trips through the rocks on my back in the strong currents on Saturday! I also rode some awesome waves! Several of them with better than 15' faces. So I guess it's "Game ON" again over here on da Rock. Glenn James said that we have one more day of waves and there isn't much in the way of work so what a mutha to do?

We just finished up another 4 day north shore big wave event and it was soo good!
The swells have been back to back all this late summer /early fall!
Every day of this last swell was unique unto it’s self and had its own personality due to slight directional and weather changes.

Day one was difficult in that the wind was very gusty and I rigged for the lulls so I really got spanked in the gusts. It was hard to turn on the wave face. I was upset with myself for breaking a rule that I have about trying to tweak my sail to do something that is beyond it designed purpose. As it turned out there really wasn’t any perfect scenario but I should have rigged the sail the way it was designed or rigged another size. I still got some great waves in spite of the gnarly wind conditions.

Day two was one of the best (big wave) wave sailing days that I can remember EVER! 20’+ faces with steady 4.4m wind and the channels were open. I dropped in and road so many perfect waves I have no Idea how many. I started getting tired at one point and almost went in when a beautiful massive wave presented its self and I just had to take it after that I decided that if I go in before dark with conditions as good as they were I would probably regret it. When I did go in I was too exhausted to fight the current in the Kuau channel and I was nearly washed back out to sea via the rock garden. My Kiwi buddy Tracy saw what was happening and swam out and helped me punch my sail board gear through the ripping current. I had done the same for her a couple of weeks back when she broke her mast. She was just paying back the favor.

Day three the waves were still giant and somewhat larger than day two. The wind was sketchy due to the passing rain squalls. In fact the wind completely shut down for a while leaving a number of pro sailors swimming with their rigs in giant wave and strong current. The wind came back so I rigged and sailed a shorter session than the previous day. I got some more phenomenal mackers and made it back to the launch without much trouble.

Day four was forecasted to have much lighter wind so I opted to drive over to the west side and surf. My favorite long board had been repaired and I was excited to ride the green” Aggro Tank” again. I had a classic expression session with no more than four guys in the lineup at any one time and plenty of shoulder to better than head high glassy waves After a couple of hours of great surfing the tide got high and the waves got junky so I caught a wave in and drove back to the north shore where the wind had come up enough for yet another light wind wave sail at Kuau. This sesh was just MAGIC! Due to the light wind there was very little chop on the wave face and they still had most of the size of the past few days. What a double dipper! What a blessing!

The waves and wind shut down for two days but it is up again today and the swell is supposed to jump up towards the evening for another smaller wave sailing event and then another on the weekend.

BTW: Please send your positive energy toward Baptiste. He is one of our local pro surfers and wave sailors. He got severely hurt surfing at Teahupoo in Tahiti recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8_38LHTeDg

Back in 2001 I was hired to help with the filming of the “Tow-In World Cup” a surfing competition being held at "Peahi aka Jaws".

My initial assignment was establishing two separate camera stations on the sheer cliff above “Jaws”. In addition to the camera platforms, a trail system with safety rails also needed to be constructed in order to safely transport the equipment and protect the crew that were posisitioned on these steep and awkward perches.

The film was to be shot in 35mm.
This required a person constantly running freshly loaded film canisters from a production vehicle on top down the cliff down to the camera station below and transporting canisters of exposed film back to the production center for processing and reloading.

While I was working on my camera station and trail project, there was allot going on out on the wave. In addition to the usual surfing activity, another production crew was at work.
Laird Hamilton, Derrick Dorner, and Dave Kalama, were towing in to waves in the 30’ range. They were wearing camouflage print wetsuits, firing weapons at each other with all three of them surfing the same wave. This was an action stunt for an up coming James Bond movie.

After the trail construction was completed the swell on the north shore dropped drastically causing the contest to be postponed.

Two weeks went by before I received the call telling me that a gimongus swell was on it's way and the contest was back on and we were going back to work.

The majority of the contestants and film crew, had left the island and gone back to their homes in various places around the world. They were now on the first flights back to Maui!

With all the logistics of a live film shoot, something had to go wrong, and things did!

In the middle of the event one of the rented 35mm movie cameras failed at another very important camera location.

Mercer Richards our assistant camera man was moved to that station to continue the shooting using his personal equipment.

Our camera man Greg Huglin received a radio call from the producer (Mike Slattery) asking which of the back up camera men he wanted to fill in as his assistant. His response was, "I already have a man Olaf is taking care of things quite well and all we need is a film runner to take his place".

This resulted in my assisting Greg Hugglin while he filmed “Jaws” at over 50’ with the best big wave "tow–in” surfers in the world competing for a $70,000 first place prize!
The footage that we shot that day was incorporated in the film “Billabong Odyssey”.
The address at the beginning of this post is the opening scene from "Billabong Odyssey"

Hmmm, looks there's some interesting, and exciting stories in this thread. I'll have to read through the pages when I have more time. : )

RE: Shore-break waves...

I was caught off guard, and picked up, and slammed down head first into the hard, wet sand under water three weeks ago by a SBW; No wonder the sea was practically a ghost town, (D'OH!) ; ) Anyway, I'm pretty sure I was knocked out for a second or two, but luckily I inhaled some salt water as it made me come to, and realize what was happening. It was a little unnerving because I didn't know if I was swimming up or down after being somersaulted around a few times. I have a fair amount of ocean swimming, and boogie boarding experience since childhood, mainly at S. Cali beaches, and this is the second time one of those MF SBWs almost did me in. The first time I got slammed down by one was when I was bodysurfing (or trying to) at 8 years old. I thought I was going to die.

Any stories on SBWs; I bet there's killer ones on the islands.

Another successful Hatteras trip in the books compliments Hurricane Bill and Tropical Storm Danny. Things looked promising during our drive down from the Jerz when I spotted a guy surfing off Fisherman's Island which is part of the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel. I had read about people surfing there but never before witnessed it during the many times through this area. Feasted on many waves at the lighthouse despite a surly crowd. Had my best session at Rodanthe pier during the late morning incoming tide on 8/27. Clean 5 - 7 peeling rights with about 8 guys on it. Surfed until my arms were dead logs! Good size with some early morning sickness 8/29 as Danny passed during the night. Caught 5 - 7' the next day in the Jerz with epic crowds.

Gi-Gi I am sure that every one that has set foot in the ocean has a shore break story and I would like to hear them all.
One of my own that comes to mind occurred on my first time trying to wave sail at Cape Blanco on the Oregon Coast.
We had a four car caravan cruising the coast and searching for a windy place to sail and it turned out that the only accessible launch was out on Cape Blanco.
When we got there my friends quickly rigged their sails and launched while I fooled with my gear. I wasn't paying attention to the size of the shore pound. After a while I finally got my stuff together. I carried it out and I was standing innocently in the knee deep water waiting for a gust to get me going when out of nowhere came an eight foot wave that just creamed me. It broke my mast in two and wrapped my sail around me so tight that I couldn't escape from it. I was then presented with several more of those badass punk waves before I was able to free my self of the sail. When the punishment was over I was once again standing in knee deep water feeling and looking like a real KOOK!
When my friends came in from their wonderful ocean sailing experience one of them said to me " I meant to warn you about the shore break at this place!"