JJF: A session to remember

Word on the street is JJF spends more time in the water than just about anyone else. Maybe that’s why he is so damn good. Imagine if you surfed as good as he does, you’d surf all day too. A man that surfs this much in so many different types of conditions must have some good sessions under the belt. One session in particular stuck out to him.

John recalls; “The first time I ever used a floatation vest was on Christmas day, last year. We surfed this left out at second reef Kammie Land. That day Nathan got the shot in Stab (below). We were all wearing blow up vests and it was just me, Nathan, Eli, Kiron and Koa out there. It was kinda our whole crew, and there was no one out. Everyone I’ve talked to about that wave is like yeah we’ve always been looking at it but we’ve never surfed it. So, we all paddled out, and it was nuts. Surfing a big wave we’ve never surfed before makes it so much scarier. It was heavy, but fun.

We paddled out at sunset and it’s gnarly because it’s so much further out than you think. We started at Sunset and got to the outside channel and there was 10-12 foot waves coming in in the channel. We were bailing on channel waves. We finally get out and then we got sucked into the Kammies bowl.  That was the scariest thing in the world because that thing just twists and turns and won’t let you get out of it. Once your finally out there,  you can pick and choose waves and you can see the corners on them. It’s one of the scariest actual waves. The good thing with the wave is you could stick to the shoulder somewhat, but it’s crazy because there’s this big outside peak that breaks, then it comes in and dies out, then there’s this little thing that breaks underneath it and corners, so it’s real easy to get sucked into the current, and that kind of pulls you deep. There’s also a couple where you’re just looking at this big wall of water and you’re thinking, ‘Well I’m definitely not on the corner anymore.’

I had one wave were I couldn’t get out of it because I had to straighten out at and the bowl came back at me. I got so lit up and thought I would’ve just got washed in but it just kept sucking me back into the bowl. I finally got out of it and had to go around the inside of tube city. I wanted to go back out so I paddled back out by myself. I couldn’t see the guys for like 10 minutes, I thought I was going to fuckin die. I thought, there’s no one out right now and those guys went in. Russo was shooting that day on the ski, but that was the scariest thing because even on the ski I couldn’t see him yet and I was way outside of sunset already. I was stressing out. It’s good to be that scared now and then and I’ve come to enjoy it.