This Is What It’s Like Getting In And Out At Jaws:
No fun at all.
It’s a rather well-known fact that while surfing Jaws is terrifying, just getting into the lineup can be scary enough. Evidence? Kyle Thiermann’s POV clip above which, despite the fact a GoPro’s fisheye substantially belittles wave size, does a good job of capturing the entry point’s intensity.
And let’s also remember what Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker once told Stab about the ordeal of entering, and exiting, Jaws (more from Twiggy’s guide to Peahi, here):
“Geez. The rock jump is probably the worst part about surfing Jaws. It’s even more scary than the waves themselves. Jumping out is not as bad as coming in – but I mean, it’s still seriously nerve-wracking ‘cause if you mistime it, you can get into a very bad situation. But coming in its worse, because you can’t see the sets coming, you can’t time it on the lulls ‘cause it’s just constant waves bashing on the boulders. Fuck, every time I’ve done it I’ve lost a fin or dinged up a board or scraped myself. It’s an absolute nightmare. It’s Waimea shorebreak onto boulders, and you’ve gotta time going in and out, holding a big board and balancing on rocks. We don’t put our fins in, we put them in our wetsuits and then only once you’re though the shorebreak do you put your fins in. Nine times out of 10 you’re knocking a fin out otherwise. And then before you come in you try and take them out, then come in. You don’t want to knock a fin box out mostly, ‘cause then you’ve got nothing to surf on that afternoon or the next day.”
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