http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...es-years-come-Hawaii-North-Pacific-storm.html Surf's up as biggest waves in five years come to Hawaii after North Pacific storm Thousands of spectators and surfers are flocking to Hawaii's beaches to see the biggest waves in years crash ashore. (more at the link)
My wife & I took the twins (boys, age 21) to Kauai again last summer (I love tax returns!) and there is a body board only area with waves about 8' high. I got rolled by one of those and thought I was dead. Then I see people really getting wiped out by those or the 20' waves in the photo above and I realize just how incredibly dangerous that stuff is. All that said, I would have loved to learn to surf when I was younger.
My dad grew up in Oahu. He used to love to surf the North Shore. When the family moved to the East Coast, he would only surf when there was a hurricane warning. He would have loved those waves, although I'm not sure he would have tried his hand at something that big.
That is the stuff you see on movies. People typically surf about 8' swells. Those are like 20'. edit maybe 30'
Did he ever move to Oregon? There are actually some epic waves if you go out far and have a dry suit to stay warm.
If you look closely at that picture, the guy on the bottom left is MIXUM and he is complaining the wave isn't big enough!
I live at the beach in San Diego and see people surfing all the time. Those waves are GIANT compared to the ones here, maybe 3x or 4x... at least.
I'm not a huge surfer (brother lives in Hawaii and do it when I visit him), but here is my take of surfing: The biggest bitch is to paddle past the waves to get ready to surf . . . and for me I'm talking 2-3 foot waves. It's funny because I work hard to get out there, but then if/when I stand, the wave looks so small I can't believe those waves gave me such problems (paddling out and trying to catch them). It really is a funny realization when standing taht the waves don't seem as big as when you are laying on the board. That picture . . . tahnk god I couldn't even paddle out there to get into position to catch a monster like that. Laying down on a board (or probably even standing up) out there . . . I would feel like I could die at any moment.
Grew up on Oahu, then Southern California...the elite in Hawaii were the surfers, at the height of the craze in the early 60s...they made fun of me for not having a tan...fuck you surfers!! I am one of the original skateboarders!! Still have the mahogany laminated skateboard I made in 8th grade shop in Hawaii!!!
Just south of San Francisco at Half Moon Bay, another of the world's biggest breaks (Mavericks) is starting to go off. Here's a link to recent photos... click the view photos link in the lower left http://www.maverickssurf.com/buzz/thanksgiving_photos.php STOMP