Tag: Big Waves
El Nino winters in Hawaii are known for drier than normal weather, warmer temperatures and big surf. This year’s El Nino is following the forecast to perfection. January has seen little rain, warm days and a whole lot of high surf warnings. Last Wednesday was described as the biggest surf seen at Peahi, Maui’s renowned big wave break, in over a decade. Today’s rapidly building swell was predicted to bring surf that was almost equal in size. The waves were big and they inflicted quite a bit of carnage on the surfers in the water. Our broker Billy headed down to Peahi, also known as Jaws, right before sunset. He met up with Maui Real Estate Team agent Martin Lenny just in time to see Martin’s son Kai catch one of the last waves of the day. Here are a couple of photos that Billy took from this evening’s surf.
Kai Lenny on his SUP at Jaws
An unknown surfer catches a nice wave at Peahi.
The jet skis on the left side of the photo give you some sense of the size of this wave at Peahi.
The forecast calls for the big surf to continue over night and into the morning before slowly decreasing throughout the day tomorrow. There are still a couple of months left before the end of the this El Nino winter season. I suspect we may see some more really big days at Peahi. If work allows, we will try to get down there for some more pictures and video.
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.
We had an early season High Surf Warning on Maui yesterday. Waves slowly built throughout the day. By late afternoon some of the best big wave riders had congregated at Maui’s infamous big wave spot Jaws. I had the opportunity to head out to watch the action from the cliffs just before sunset. One wave ridden by Shane Dorian has already been receiving considerable buzz as one of the best waves ever ridden at Jaws. I had the video camera rolling and was able to get some footage of Shane’s ride. Don’t mind the off color commentary.
The waves are still breaking this morning. Who knows what great feats may happen today?
The last two days of the month brought some very large surf to the North Shore of Maui. The swell started to rise significantly late in the morning of the 30th and continued to build throughout the day to heights well in excess of the 25 feet necessary for a high surf warning. This big surf meant Maui’s world famous big wave break came to life. I had the opportunity to head out to Haiku to watch the action at Jaws both on the late afternoon of the 30th and the morning of the 31st.
Each day had its own distinct personality. The afternoon of the 30th was a building swell with particularly big and hollow barrels. I arrived just as the wind was dying and was able to see the very tail end of the windsurfing action. The windsurfers were interspersed with a handful of tow surfers (surfers being pulled into the waves by Jet Skis). After the windsurfers packed up, it was just the tow surfers left in the lineup. I was able to watch Maui Real Estate Team Agent Martin Lenny’s son Kai catch a couple on his windsurfer before towing into a few nice waves. The beautiful late afternoon light was a striking contrast with the menacing looking surf. Here is a quick video showing some of the waves from Monday afternoon.
The surf peaked in size overnight and then started to come down on the morning on the 31st. While the surf was smaller, it was still substantial by the standards of mortal surfers. The composition of the wave riders had also changed. With lighter winds, the line up was dominated by surfers paddling into the waves with their own two hands. There was also one tow team surfing the left and legendary waterman Robbie Naish was out on a stand up paddle board. Here is some video I captured from yesterday morning.
I always enjoy the opportunity to head down the bumpy, old, dirt roads that lead you to the cliffs above Jaws. This wave is a sensory experience and a true spectacle of nature. While I can’t bring you the full sounds of the roaring surf or the smell of the salty mist generated by the waves, I hope these videos give you at least a taste of the visual feast that Jaws offers.
Maui Real Estate Team agent Martin Lenny’s son Kai is one of the most accomplished young watermen in the world. He is the two time world champion for Stand Up Paddling, a world class distance Stand Up Paddler, a professional windsurfer, a world class kite surfer, a great surfer, tow surfer and big wave rider. Kai was a stand out performer during the big swell at Jaws last week. In the morning, he paddled into some great waves on his surf board. This was Kai’s first time paddling in (not on a SUP board) at Jaws and he caught some bombs.
In the afternoon, Kai rigged up his windsurf equipment and caught quite a few more good waves. He then traded in his windsurf gear for a kite board. After catching a few on his kite gear, he picked up the rope and was towed into some more big waves. Four sports in one day at Jaws is quite the feat of skill and endurance. Here are a few pictures of Kai on the big waves. The top two are picture we took from up on the cliff. The bottom two are pictures from other photographers that Martin sent to us.
Here is a link to a fantastic picture by Frank Berthout of Kai Lenny Windsurfing at Jaws. Great job Kai. You have bigger huevos than anyone in the office.
Maui Real Estate Blog
More Jaws, Maui Paddle In Surfing Footage from January 4, 2012
Yesterday, I posted some pictures and video of the big paddle in session at Jaws on January 4th. Last night, I had the opportunity to sort through all of the video I shot from up on the cliffs. Here is a compilation of my best footage. While it is tough to replicate the energy and the action that you see from the cliffs, I hope it gives you a sense of the size of the waves, and the extraordinary challenge of catching these waves without the assist of a Jet Ski. Enjoy.
