JAWS INITIATION

Looking back on this day I can’t help but feel like a bit of moron having earlier made the call to ‘’take off, it looks crap.” Photographer John Carter and Starboard boss Svein Rasmussen had the text I sent in one hand, held up next to the screen of the camera a shot taken of me riding a double mast high wave in the other. Well, it just goes to show you can’t always be right! Story: Scott McKercher

  Pics: John Carter

(This feature originally appeared in the July 2012 issue of Windsurf Magazine. Print and digital subscriptions for readers worldwide are available HERE.)

Sailing Jaws has never been an overwhelming goal I have felt I had to accomplish, but if given the opportunity, was always something I would like to say I have done. And there I was, sitting in a boat, having never sailed Peahi before, saying that we should be taking off.

In all my years of coming to Maui, a chance to sail Jaws has never lined up – either not having a massive swell, no boat or a boat organised but then not enough waves. Then out of the blue during Starboard’s photo shoot, a mediocre Jaws-size day comes through on the radar. It started to unfold at dusk in the car park of Ho’okipa. Starboard boss Svein Rasmussen and SUP marketing manager Margareta were trying to figure out the best possibilities for the next day.

With Ho’okipa on the rise and looking like being closed out, the only options looked like Peahi or Outer Sprecks and the wheels of motion went into gear to try and organise which windsurf and SUP riders were going to get on Campbell Farrell’s boat at 5am.

To me, it all seemed overwhelming to try and arrange the boat, food, contacting of people and I rallied against the decision. But Svein and Margareta didn’t see obstacles and kept on working through all the logistics until late into the night.

Against my call it was up at 4am to drive down to the launching ramp in Kahului. After just finishing a novel on Bonn Scott from AC/DC – Highway to Hell – having the song come on the radio on the way to sail Jaws for your first time wasn’t really the best sign for someone who’s a bit of believer in omens, and it kind of put me on edge for the day.

The pre-dawn light also made it feel kind of moody as we loaded up the SUP and windsurf gear and bashed into the wind. It was already blowing fairly strong and was a bit of a mission to boat all the way to Jaws from the harbour, but low tide at [alternative launch] Maliko Gulch dictated this was our only option.

On the way we passed one tow team at Outer Sprecks, but I’m pretty clueless how the coast looks from the ocean side and was thinking it didn’t look that big, and doubted whether Jaws would actually be breaking.

It’s quite an ominous arena as you pull into the cliff lined bay and see the plumes of spray flying off of the back of the waves. I’m always a little nervous sailing a wave for the first time anywhere, so it’s little wonder there were a couple of butterfly’s in my belly – thanks Bonn!

First up out of the boat were the SUP crew of Campbell, Bart and Zane. It wasn’t big by Jaws standards but there were some decent slabs coming through and you certainly wouldn’t want to be caught out of position. There was a lot of wind and bump on the take-off for the paddlers that made it look really difficult. A lot of attempts to get on a wave resulted in either being blown or bumped off.

Laird Hamilton and Kai Lenny were out there on their SUPs with Laird getting a few on the left and later Kai joined him. One clean up set dragged Bart all the way to the rocks with everyone else losing their paddles. Campbell got into a fairly decent sized wave once he got his paddle back and reached for his longer board, which allowed him to scratch into another. After great perseverance Bart and Zane shared a ride, doing really well to hold it together. It first looked like the wind was going to flip them on take-off before they had a big hole in the wave face to deal with half way down.

That was enough for them and to me it looked like way too hard work. Having never been here before with no idea of the line up, I was happy to stay on board the boat. I don’t think it would have been too wise to try the SUP option.

With the swell forecast to drop at 11AM, it was windy and a long time since the last set, so I thought it was pretty much done. We had heard Polakow was gearing up to sail Ho’okipa, so I fired-off the text that I reckon it looked shitty and we should split and try and make the most of the rest of the day.

The call from the folk sitting on the hill was to give it a crack seeing as though we were there. So I rigged up, jumped off the boat and saw straight away the paddle surfers weren’t having a bar of it. Arms started waving in a gesture that was pretty much the international signal to f***k off and a ski started to come out for me so it was pretty obvious I wasn’t welcome and headed back to the boat.

Back on board the overwhelming vibe was that everyone wanted to get going, but again we were told to stay put. Pretty quickly after being told to sod-off the paddle guys were gone and the line-up was all of a sudden left empty to give it a crack.

With no surfers to show me the take-off point it was bizarre lining up for my first wave.  It was like being in a massive football stadium with all the cliffs around, and the potential take-off area felt just as big. So the first one was like, “sheesh, where the hell do I set up for this thing?”

I was lucky as my first wave was actually a pretty clean one, but I played it pretty conservatively with no idea how the place functioned. I was deep enough to get a look up at a nice clean wall in front of me and bank it around off the top. With my first wave out of the way my stomach was settled enough to score a few more.

Jaws is a place that commands respect no doubt, and I’d been hearing how all the boys are looking into alternative breathing apparatus for when they get held down a bit long, with Robby Naish having just had a scary moment during the previous  swell.

You definitely have to contain a fair bit of speed coming down the face, even when it’s small and I wasn’t too sure how my Quad 82 was going to handle the drop but was pleasantly surprised. You don’t want to be taking the first wave in a set that’s for sure, as there had some mogul sized bumps to contend with which made it pretty sketchy and it would be so easy to lose concentration for a moment and be in a world of trouble.

This is where I start to look like the fool. There I am with the place to myself for about forty five minutes before the rest of the crew,  including Boujmaa, come out and I had made the call to leave.

I’m aware now that I was in a pretty luxurious situation with all the images I’ve seen lately of skis, sails, SUPs and surfers all over the joint. So in hindsight it really was a rare gem of a session and I just wasn’t aware how lucky I was at the time.

I also know that this was the place at its tamest and I’m now pretty keen to see how the place is when it really starts to roar. Not that I’ll chase it down or anything but if I’m around it sure would be nice to really get scared.

A big thank you to Svein, Margareta and Campbell for helping me tick-off one from the bucket list, all when I did my best to sabotage it.

SMc

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Filed under: 2012, Bart de Zwart, boujmaa guilloul, campbell farrell, hawaii, jaws, Kai Lenny, laird hamilton, margareta engstrom, Maui, mystic, pe'ahi, Scott McKercher, severne, Starboard, Svein Rasmussen, windsurfing magazine, Zane Schweitzer Comments Off