"It was the biggest waves I've seen paddling for sure," says Shane Dorian of this session. Jamie Mitchell, pictured here, didn't make the wave but says it was the wave behind that shook his nerves. “I couldn’t see anything because of the spray but when it cleared all I could see was a massive wall of water. It was at least 70 feet, blocked out the sky and was about to break directly on my head. I’d never seen anything like that from that angle before.”

(Audio) “OK, this is serious!”

By Derek Rielly

12 years ago

Jamie Mitchell on wiping out on a sixty-footer and being caught inside by something even more disquieting…

Yeah, so this wave is a year old, almost to the day.

You’ve heard about it. You even read about it on BeachGrit (click here).

But what a wave of nervous joy it gives to hear Jamie Mitchell, the 38-year-old big-wave surfer and peerless board paddler (10-times winner of the 32-mile Molokai to Oahu race), describe paddling into a sixty-footer, getting bounced then facing a wave that is eighty-plus!