Jaws Swell October 9-10, 2012

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Maui’s winter surf season kicked off early with a big swell hitting the island October 9th-10th. Big wave riders from all over the world converged at the renowned big wave spot Jaws. The swell was distinguished not only by it’s very early arrival in big wave season, but also by the perfection of the waves. The conditions were a factor in the increased performance level as surfer’s took paddle in big wave surfing to new levels. Shane Dorian led the charge with arguably the biggest paddle in barrel ever ridden at Jaws on Tuesday afternoon. I was lucky enough to be on hand to watch and film some of the action on October 9th. In addition to Shane’s big wave, here is some of the other footage I was able to capture on a historic day in big wave riding.

This is another wave caught by Shane before his big barrel. It was probably the best quality shot I was able to get during my filming.

Shortly before Shane caught his big wave, a monster set steam rolled through the lineup scattering riders and their boards. I missed the first wave of the set which took out about half the lineup. Most of the other surfers were cleaned up by the following waves.

Kai Lenny, son of Maui Real Estate Team agent Martin Lenny, was one of the guys out in the lineup both days. He caught a ton of great waves. Here are a few waves ridden by Kai. I am bummed I missed some of his better waves.

There was plenty of buzz all over the Internet over this big swell. Here are some links to a few other collections of photos and video that I found online.

Maui Photographer Mike Neal’s Jaws Gallery

Surfline’s Opening Day at Peahi

Surfline’s article showing all the action from October 10th at Jaws

The Maui Real Estate Team’s Jaws photo album with a handful of photos I snapped while shooting video.

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