Hello from Hawaii. It's been cranking on the South Shore for almost a month.  I've been surfing more than I do in the winter.  It takes me an hour to drive to town, plus an hour home, so for some reason, my brain tells me i have to be out longer than 2 hours.  I surfed courts the other day for 4 hours.  Some people surf that long a lot.  Not me, I haven't surfed that long in at least a decade.  I haven't surfed that long in Hawaii for at least 2 decades.  Since we're talking 2 decades ago, and I'm out of town stories, I'm going to tell a story from 1987.  In 1987 I got the opportunity to travel around the world with Aaron Chang for Surfing Magazine.  That's a long story.  Although I'd love to write it,  I'm only going to bullshit about one session in Peru. 

For me, in '87,  Hawaii was the only spot with giant surf.  South Africa, Australia, maybe Peru, they were rumored to have big waves, but nothing on par with Waimea.  Marverick's was only a figment of Jeff Clark's imagination.  Later we found out Jeff wasn't high or dreaming, but that's another blog.  Since I was riding an 8'2" at Waimea, all I would need for a big gun on this worldwide adventure was a 7'2".  

Peru had a spot called Pico Alto.  It was their Waimea.  Whatever.  I had my 7'2, and I was 19.  After surfing a week of perfect point breaks around Lima, and hearing about this big wave, we woke up to huge surf.  Pico Alto was on.  It was about an hour drive out of town.  When we got there, we stood on a cliff, and looked a mile out to sea.  I couldn't tell how big it was because the spot was seriously, a mile out. I didn't watch very long, just grabed my board and started a long paddle out.  The closer I got to the spot, the biggier the wave got.  When I finally reached the line up, the waves were huge.  It was 15 to 20 Hawaiian, and peeling like Laniakea.  At that time in my life, I didn't know what fear was.  I was going to ride some big waves on my 7'2.  

I paddled out to the peak, and dodged a few bombs.  I was having problems catching the wave with my board. After I missed one 20 footer I knew I could have caught, I was pissed.  I remember thinking, I am going on the next set. Catching a 20 ft. wave on 7'2" was stupid.  The wave did not want to be ridden by a board that small.  I took off blind, free fell about 5 ft. and then felt o.k. for a second.  It's hard to explain, but put simply, if you don't have enough momentum, your board, and you, you just become a stick foating on the surface of the wave.  When I landed, my board felt like it wanted to go backwards.  I wasn't really moving down the face; I felt almost stationary. Then the lip landed on my head.  I went straight though my board.  I even cut my wrist on the way through.  The wipeout was bad. I was under forever.  When I finally came up, I was a mile out, out of breath and with half a board.  But i was young.

When I got to shore I was tired.  Somebody had a 8'8 to borrow, so I went back out.  I ended up having a great session.  Pico Alto was a great big wave.

I'd like to say I learned my lesson about underestimating big waves in other places.  A few years later I got invited to go surf some spot called Todos Santos.  I packed my 7'8".  When we got there the waves were 15+.  Mike Parsons surfed circles around me on his 9'8.  Lesson learned.  The first time I surfed Mavericks I had a 9'6". — Brock