Stab Magazine | Story Behind The Cover: Makua Rothman, Jaws

Live Now — Episode 2 Of Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico

445 Views

Story Behind The Cover: Makua Rothman, Jaws

From Stab issue 61, on sale now… On the Cover: Makua Rothman on a Madame Jaws Miracle, shot by Zak Noyle/A-Frame. Words by Derek Rielly. A little after October hit, that freak Jaws leapt out of bed and sloshed water on her face. You know Jaws or Peahi, right? That brawny queen on Maui that birthed tow-in surfing, pretty much. Well, now it ain’t so much about the tows and the skis and the noise and the birds in the sky, but a band of real-life big-wave cats on surfboards, like, 10-feet plus clubs. You know their names: Shane Dorian, Ian Walsh, Mark Healey… Makua Rothman. Stab has kicked with the kid Makua since he was, what, 10, maybe, two years after he was collared by a two-wave hold-down at Waimea Bay during a ceremony for the Eddie Aikau. He’s 28 now and, boy, don’t he know how to swing into the blackness. How about we light up on the wave, here, and on the cover, that monstrous, terrible stud… That’s the first day of the swell. The morning of the swell was only about three feet, maybe five feet all day. I surfed Sunset that morning (on Oahu) and it was, like, 15 feet. Maybe 18 feet. I got one of the biggest barrels I ever got at Sunset Point (Makua grew up and still lives at Backyards Sunset) on the inside bowl and I thought, wow, the swell’s starting to pick up here I might as well jump on a plane. So I jumped on a one thirty flight, got to the beach around three thirty and it just went, here we go! As soon as I showed up, the first 25-foot set came in. And, I was like, I just timed this perfectly. Talk me through your experience here… I paddled for the first wave of the set and I missed it because I was out of position and Shan-o paddled for the next one and he missed that one and I just moved for some reason. I knew the third wave of the set was going to be a huge one and pretty much be right where I was and somehow I went over the wave and it was like this. It was the third wave so the wind and wrinkles were out of it. It was so so super glassy and I I was thinking to myself, this thing looks pretty nuts, brah. I had to just… whip it. I turned around and said, here we go. It got really steep so my board did a little turn back towards the wave and, as I was dropping down, I could tell just how hollow this thing was behind me and I was thinking if I get to the bottom and this ten six doesn’t turn… we’re going to have problems. I got to the problem and somehow it just set the rail. Whoooa I could not believe how good the board turned. Kinda got up high, pointed it towed the shoulder and made it. How’d it feel being a spittoon for that monster? The spit missed me for some reason. If you look at Shane-o’s wave, the one that everyone was ranting about, it kinda crumbles. It crumbles off the drop, and then it doubles up and then it barrels on the inside and spits hard. This wave I caught, that wave was straight from out the back, top to bottom, big as Jaws gets, almost, top to bottom…you saw how big that spit is… Crazy! Like P-Pass but fucking…huge. Ain’t a problem when you’ve been slicing whales since you six. Well, when I was young I was always… fat. I was always the fat kid. I was teased: Lunchbox, Cheeseburger, Puffer Fish, Pillsbury Dough Boy and I never could really surf those small waves cause I was just the fat kid. So, the bigger waves were easier for me. And so, just from being teased, fat this, fat that, and every mean thing you could say to a kid, it just made me mad so when the waves were big I just tried to catch a bigger wave than them and then tease them back: “You’re scared, you’re fucking surfing on the shore.” It was the only way to get back at everybody. What’s your biggest fear in a session like this? The biggest fear is not getting the good one and coming in and watching everyone else getting congratulated and you went out there and you had the chance to go. That’s my biggest fear. Coming in with nothing to show. That would absolutely fucking break my heart. It would drive me to complete madness. You can buy Stab issue 61 digitally, right now, over here.

news // Mar 8, 2016
Words by Stab
Reading Time: 3 minutes

From Stab issue 61, on sale now

On the Cover: Makua Rothman on a Madame Jaws Miracle, shot by Zak Noyle/A-Frame. Words by Derek Rielly.

A little after October hit, that freak Jaws leapt out of bed and sloshed water on her face. You know Jaws or Peahi, right? That brawny queen on Maui that birthed tow-in surfing, pretty much. Well, now it ain’t so much about the tows and the skis and the noise and the birds in the sky, but a band of real-life big-wave cats on surfboards, like, 10-feet plus clubs. You know their names: Shane Dorian, Ian Walsh, Mark Healey… Makua Rothman.

Stab has kicked with the kid Makua since he was, what, 10, maybe, two years after he was collared by a two-wave hold-down at Waimea Bay during a ceremony for the Eddie Aikau. He’s 28 now and, boy, don’t he know how to swing into the blackness.

How about we light up on the wave, here, and on the cover, that monstrous, terrible stud… That’s the first day of the swell. The morning of the swell was only about three feet, maybe five feet all day. I surfed Sunset that morning (on Oahu) and it was, like, 15 feet. Maybe 18 feet. I got one of the biggest barrels I ever got at Sunset Point (Makua grew up and still lives at Backyards Sunset) on the inside bowl and I thought, wow, the swell’s starting to pick up here I might as well jump on a plane. So I jumped on a one thirty flight, got to the beach around three thirty and it just went, here we go! As soon as I showed up, the first 25-foot set came in. And, I was like, I just timed this perfectly.

Talk me through your experience here… I paddled for the first wave of the set and I missed it because I was out of position and Shan-o paddled for the next one and he missed that one and I just moved for some reason. I knew the third wave of the set was going to be a huge one and pretty much be right where I was and somehow I went over the wave and it was like this. It was the third wave so the wind and wrinkles were out of it. It was so so super glassy and I I was thinking to myself, this thing looks pretty nuts, brah. I had to just… whip it. I turned around and said, here we go. It got really steep so my board did a little turn back towards the wave and, as I was dropping down, I could tell just how hollow this thing was behind me and I was thinking if I get to the bottom and this ten six doesn’t turn… we’re going to have problems. I got to the problem and somehow it just set the rail. Whoooa I could not believe how good the board turned. Kinda got up high, pointed it towed the shoulder and made it.

How’d it feel being a spittoon for that monster? The spit missed me for some reason. If you look at Shane-o’s wave, the one that everyone was ranting about, it kinda crumbles. It crumbles off the drop, and then it doubles up and then it barrels on the inside and spits hard. This wave I caught, that wave was straight from out the back, top to bottom, big as Jaws gets, almost, top to bottom…you saw how big that spit is…

Crazy! Like P-Pass but fucking…huge.

Ain’t a problem when you’ve been slicing whales since you six. Well, when I was young I was always… fat. I was always the fat kid. I was teased: Lunchbox, Cheeseburger, Puffer Fish, Pillsbury Dough Boy and I never could really surf those small waves cause I was just the fat kid. So, the bigger waves were easier for me. And so, just from being teased, fat this, fat that, and every mean thing you could say to a kid, it just made me mad so when the waves were big I just tried to catch a bigger wave than them and then tease them back: “You’re scared, you’re fucking surfing on the shore.” It was the only way to get back at everybody.

What’s your biggest fear in a session like this? The biggest fear is not getting the good one and coming in and watching everyone else getting congratulated and you went out there and you had the chance to go. That’s my biggest fear. Coming in with nothing to show. That would absolutely fucking break my heart. It would drive me to complete madness.

You can buy Stab issue 61 digitally, right now, over here.

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

When Surfer’s Eye Is Actually Cancer

Erin Campbell's brutal journey from surf camp dreams to chemo drops, cryotherapy, and surgical horror.

Jul 3, 2025

Surfing’s 2025 Q2 Report

An assessment of surfing's vital signs throughout the second quarter of 2025.

Jul 2, 2025

What Actually Happened to Occy’s Mad Max Plunger Pool In Yeppoon?

Surf Lakes’ brass talks: internet hecklers, the unplugging of the plunger, and the Tom Curren…

Jul 2, 2025

Poor Goofy Foots 

Data shows that the world is stacked against goofs — they even make 15% less money than…

Jul 1, 2025

Britain’s First Wavepool Has Closed — What Really Happened?

Bankruptcy, social media hackings, debts unpaid — and yet, reopening looms.

Jul 1, 2025

Watch: Was Matt Meola’s Air Actually Better Than Hughie’s?

Watch the full Swatch Nines highlight reel and decide.

Jun 30, 2025

Houshmand Bludgeons Field To Win Second CT — Molly Picklum Tastes Blood, Snatches World #1 In Brazil

You can't argue with big surfing — that's Saquarema wrapped.

Jun 29, 2025

37 Years Old And World #1 — What’s Changed For Jordy Smith?

On rediscovering decades old surfboard templates, having a personality on the CT, and why this…

Jun 27, 2025

Tom Lowe Stars in ‘Let Me Live’

The wild, improbable ascent of Britain’s best big-wave surfer.

Jun 27, 2025

Saq Wrap: Italo Celebrates Mid-Heat, Griff Drops A Freestyle, Jordy + Yago Continue BBQing 20-YOs

Top seeds sow ruin, Final 5 starts to crystallize.

Jun 27, 2025

Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico: Episode 2

Our seven surviving surfers confront an oddly large California beach break.

Jun 26, 2025

SEOTY: The ‘Once-In-A-Decade’ Caribbean Swell That Kelly Slater Passed On

Michael Dunphy stars in Jimmicane's 'Blue Veil'

Jun 25, 2025

Who Owns Bingin? Legal Fight To Stop Demolition Begins

Eviction notices served for all businesses built on state land.

Jun 25, 2025

Tony Hawk Just Named Hughie Vaughan’s Internet-Breaking Air Because… No One Else Can

89% of our IG poll respondents claimed the 'stale fish flipper' was the best air…

Jun 25, 2025

German Surfers: AN INVESTIGATION

Truth is the light by which the world can see. 

Jun 24, 2025

“I Lost Everything I’ve Ever Owned, But This Board Came Back”

One month after the LA wildfires, a surfboard washed ashore.

Jun 24, 2025

Shock Therapy: World 1 & 2 Eliminated Early In Saquarema

Gabriela Bryan and Caity Simmers fall victim on Day 1 of the Vivo Rio Pro.

Jun 22, 2025

German University Surf Contest Derails After Local Pushes Competitor Off Wave

The story behind the shove, and why wave-rental politics turned physical in Seignosse.

Jun 22, 2025
Advertisement