Tag: Shane Dorian
The Billabong XXL big wave awards were held last Friday. This annual event honors big wave surfers for categories that include biggest wave, best ride, best barrel and worst wipe out. Many years, the infamous big wave surf break “Jaws” or Peahi on Maui’s North Shore produces rides that are contenders for the crown. This year was no different as a surprise October swell pushed the boundaries of big wave surfing. The biggest award went to Big Island wave rider Shane Dorian for his ride of the year. The same wave also won the “tube of the year” award. The Maui Real Estate Team was on the cliffs on October 9th with video camera in hand to record Shane’s big wave.
Congrats to Shane, the other winners and all of the nominees. A special congrats to Maui surfers Paige Alms and Matt Meola for their nominations for the Girls Performance Award and Paddle in Awards respectively.
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?