Watch: Jaws explodes!

Jaws went XXL yesterday and sent the surfing world into a hyperbolic frenzy. According to the internet and many who were there, Haleiwa’s Aaron Gold scratched into the biggest wave ever paddled (watch it at 3:21 above).

“It definitely felt like it (could be the biggest wave ever paddled at Jaws),” said Aaron. “Definitely one of longest drops I feel like I’ve ever had. It just kept going. I was like, ok, I’m coming down, and where I thought it would end, it had a whole other section to it. It felt big… it was my first wave, I’d just got out there, and I was like, oh, I’ll catch a small warm up. So, sometimes it just finds you.

“I got ragdolled. It’s always a beating out here (at Jaws). Doesn’t matter if you’re on a small one on the inside or a big one on the outside, you’re always gonna get hammered, and dragged really far. So, I got cycled pretty deep, and dragged probably a good couple hundred yards. I was able to get up no problems, it was fine. The guys were there so I just told them, hey, I’m good, gave them the signal so they didn’t come in and could focus on somebody else if they were down. Then the next couple were on the head. The second one was actually a little worse, it was foamy and my board was going sideways, doing cartwheels and bubbles coming out of my ears. All in all it was nasty, it’s always nasty, and I’m thankful that I came up in one piece.”

Also in the mix and killing it, plenty of the usuals like Shane Dorian, Albee Layer, Ian Walsh, Danilo Couto, Francisco Porcello, Kai Lenny, and even Brad Domke on a normal surfboard, among others. Feast on the footage above and below.