Jesus that’s a thick wave!
Look at the spray coming off the lip as it's breaking! I suspect that's not from an inshore wind. That's the wind coming from the wave as it's crashing! That's a lot of Mass!
I served all the West and North Shore beaches on Oahu............. Makaha, Waimea Bay, Pipeline, Sunset, and Haleiwa. Definitely not when they are of that size and stature! I'm definitely not that insane or an adrenaline junkie ..................... Well, not
that much of an adrenaline junkie.
Most people are familiar with Pipeline and Sunset beaches when you're talking big waves. And they do get pretty massive on those beaches. I don't think they are near as massive as the Munsters
that can come up at Waimea Bay Just the sheer bulk of the waves I've seen there, just make you feel tiny!
At Pipeline, Sunset, and Haleiwa, my cut off is at 15 feet. Anything past that, the reef can really eat you up way more easily. Best I remember, at Pipeline I came in when it started breaking on the second reef. For me, I really didn't surf the main North Shore beaches, Pipeline, Sunset, and Haleiwa, all that much. I like nice long rips, in surfing in in cannabis, and the ways had to come in at the right angle in the right size for my preferences.
Waimea Bay is really only actually impressive when the large ways are present.
As I've said here a few times, Makaha Is my absolute favorite overall beach to go surfing or boogie boarding. In the winter time the way the waves from the storms come in, make for an extremely long ride! Just a nice long even breaking wave. I think the biggest I've seen there that I recall was around 30 foot. Definitely too big for me, but very pretty to watch!
When the big waves come into Waimea Bay, it's extremely awe inspiring! And that's pretty much every aspect of the wave and what it takes to surf there when there are monsters waves. The sheer bulk of the wave, how quickly it rises up, the sheer mass of the lip when it breaks, how the spray spews forth from the pipeline as it's closing and then there is that insane rip that comes from the waves............... an extremely fast current! It makes the Molokai Express look like a fart in the bathtub!
The only way to get out to and get into the wave is by jet skis, when the waves are monsters! Just watching the surfers getting towed out to the wave is extremely entertaining, almost as much as when they're actually surfing the wave.
I would really like, before I die, To either go back and surf Makaha with some decent waves or just to go watch at Waimea Bay with some Munsters........................ Blazing my own herbage would be the icing on the cake!!
Thanks
@Cerebral Goo For the mustard pic that brought back a lot of good memories!
A little trivia fact that most people don't know............... Hawaiians measure their wave height different than silly Prune Picker Californians.
Californians measure the wave from the trough to the lip. Hawaiians measure the wave from the lip to the backside of the wave.
So in California, a 12 foot wave would be basically a 6 footer in Hawaii.