i get asked a lot about wave heights. in Japan, they scale the size of the wave using body parts. a small day would be knee to waist, a medium day would be head high, and a large day would be double overhead. in California they scale from the front. so waist high would be 3′ and head high would be 6′. but in Hawaii, old school surfers like myself scale from the back of the wave. so a Japanese head high or Californian 6′ wave would be 3′ for us. so when the surf report comes out, it could be tricky. 10-14′ faces on the South shore? that’s really 4-6′ for me.
this was one of the strongest swells i’ve ever experienced in town. there was so much water moving and so much energy in the ocean. i’ve had some of the worst wipeout in years. this one i took off too deep so it was either have the lip land on my head, or eject. i chose to eject. i’m just so thankful i didn’t get hurt. i saw broken boards, i saw one of my friends almost get held down for 2 consecutive waves, and i saw a lot of fear in many faces out there. there was over 300 rescues per day so that tells you how powerful this swell was. but i live for days like this. and now i can’t wait for the next big one!!!
