The Big One: Waimea, North Shore 1-23-14

  The biggest swell of the winter has been pounding our north facing shores in Hawaii for the past two days. High winds yesterday made the surfing here in Oahu basically unsurfable, although I did get some reports that Jaws (Peahi) on Maui was going off. Seems like Laird Hamilton was back in action being towed into some giant waves at Jaws. The word is that he was being filmed as part of a movie in production...Point Break 2!

  Heidi and I tried to drive to the North Shore yesterday afternoon but the the entire island must have had the same idea. The traffic was so slow that we couldn't make it to Waimea before sunset. Not to lose hope I woke up at 5am this morning and drove back to the North Shore to bring in the dawn with massive waves at Waimea Bay. I had my camera, tripod, and a mug of coffee on a nice cliff spot overlooking the surf.

Who said four is a crowd?
The church overlooking Waimea
Dream Waves
  The winds had died down a lot since the day before and were slowly shifting back to their usual offshore direction. It didn't take long after sunrise for the first brave surfers to appear on the beach with their huge boards and head out to see who could grab the first wave.

The waves were so big that every once in a while the entire bay would close out in a whirlpool of whitewater. The biggest waves I saw looked to be around 30ft high. Unlike Jaws, everyone here was paddling into the waves, no jet skis around.
These guys are pumped!
This surfer is a bit more cautious
  I had all morning to take pictures so I really explored the surrounding area and found some secret spots to get closer to the waves. I tried to throw together some pictures from each of the different angles I shot from this morning. From high on a cliff, to on the beach, to out on the rocks with waves crashing nearby. The surfers were catching waves pretty consistently this morning but when there was a lull I would turn my attention to the shore break. The waves here in shore jack up into crazy barrel formations that make for some great still photos.




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