Video proof shows that Maui's most famous big wave is actually super manageable!
Jaws, or Pe’ahi, has been the clear star of this year’s El Niño winter. It has been so very big, like jaw-droppingly so, and remember that contest? It is especially impressive in light of the canceled Eddie and the just completed Titans of Mavericks.
Could you surf it? Of course not (unless this is Albee Layer reading, resting on his couch, being fed from the hand of a Michelin star’d nymph). But what if you had only ever seen the GoPro angle? What if you had only ever looked up the nostrils of your favorite surfer and watched a playful head high wave dance behind him?
If that was the only angle available, I reckon I’d fly straight to Maui and take it on. I just got out of the water here in Cardiff-by-the-Sea and this clip below is how it felt to me. It was 2-3 max and I sat on the inside and caught the ones that sort of ran along the reef. Exactly how you see it in this clip below.
SayNoToGoPro commented on a recent story, writing, “I miss the days before GoPro made everyone think their surfing was worth viewing from horrible, unflattering photographic angles.”
I know there is some technical reason why the POV angle shrinks the background but maybe people should stop using it, entirely, on big waves? Yeah? I think so too!
