This is nothing...

So the big day came and thanks to the west direction, the waves weren't the usual humongous closeouts.

The were big and beautiful. And even ridable.
This is Middles.


This is questionable fashion.


Closeup.


Closeout. Just a bit of white water behind.


Glad this one isn't blurred.


Well, that was Hookipa.
Jaws was breaking and it was considered "small". Which I think is what inspired Einstein when he named his theory...
Marcio and his buddies were doing the usual show on the lefts. Arm powered.
Unreal.


The photo is from Jimmie Hepp's album.
Before them, Bart and Connor caught a wave each on their standup boards. I've seen the photo of Bart's wave and it's unreal too (sorry, can't put it on the blog).
Big respect to all the guys who do this kind of stuff.

I, instead, am not attracted at all by big waves. I'm actually very scared by big waves!
Yes, once in a while I do some outer reef surfing on my standup, but honestly my favorite conditions are shoulder to head high and clean.
And that's what I got the same day these photos were taken.

In fact, I ended up scoring an extremely fickle left that I only had ridden (and actually seen) once before. I don't have photos of Sunday's session, but I have a photo of that first session in 2009. It was my first day on the Sea Lion and that wave was so much fun.


This one is today's weather map.
That big concentration of circles on the left is called "depression".
Ironically, people in Hawaii get extreme excitement and joy out of it instead!
Must still be part of the relativity theory...
What's not too relative is that 936 is a very low value for the atmospheric pressure (notice that the editor made an error and wrote 1036) and that that thing looks like a hurricane on steroid.


That's how the swell is going to rise, according to the Surfline forecast.
Steep rise on Wednesday and peak on Thursday. Oh look, I'm off both days! How nice is that?!


Eddie could go.