Biggest wave you've ever ridden??

stuff of nightmares....

 

what do you even do in this situation....

 

Pray to god there isn't another one behind it

 

Matt,
Was that early to mid september when the wind was blowing N or NE for like 3 or days straight and we had pumping surf in CM for all 3 days??? If so, that was probably the best ive ever seen cape may and will never forget that. i can remember driving along beach ave and not even checking it yet, but seeing the spray coming off the back of the waves from the street and thinking holy sh!t. one of my most memorable swells ever in jersey.

But as far as biggest wave ever surfed, i guess it would have to be in the double overhead range at Blacks.

 

How much crystal meth did you smoke before deciding to paddle out? There is no way in hell i would ever want to surf a wave that big. Ever. Ever. Ever

 

Hurricane Cindy was in late August of 1999 and at least in Delaware/OCMD was clean and overhead with calm wind to light offshores. The hurricane was far enough out that the swell was very groomed long period, and large enough to have good size. Hurricane Dennis came right behind it in early september, took a track near the coast with N//NE winds so not ideal for Delaware, but probably solid in CM.

 

thats an average day at Zicatela... That place is unreal.

 

i know its bad etiquette to ditch your board but you better believe that monster is about to reject any duck diving attempt. Id ditch and swim down to the bottom, GRAB THE REEF and hold my breath!

 

Surfed Tres Palmas in Rincon on the big swells. Easily coming in with 15 foot faces if not more. I will dig up the data from the actual dates I surfed with the actual swells. It was ridiculous. Nothing like the March swell they got in 2008, but it was pretty close.

Spent 5 months there last winter and surfed all the Tres swells. Some of the scariest surfing experiences ever. We'd get swells with NW and W combined. The West swells mixed in would be bombs, scrambling to paddle out far enough. Anyway, PM if you want to hear more.

Everyone that has been posting there waves, I am pretty confident you all can surf that type of wave. It is extremely makable.

Believe it or not, I still think the OCMD/NJ waves on a huge day breaking in shallow a$$ water is more scary for me then Tres.

 

Only picture from when it was big on my last day of my Costa trip last April. Just managed to get over this one. This is at Playa Terezas, the northern most break at Hermosa, where all the surf companies have houses. It was the smallest place in hermosa, but it was so heavy. This wave is a lot bigger and heavier than it looks. It was breaking below sea level and suck up everything in sight. I'd say this is a 8ft wave. Stoked I got over this wave

 

late summer 1995 South Shore Oahu....."biggest south swell in 25 years" or so said the cover of Surfer Mag. Waikiki was absolutely huge. I surfed from China Walls to Diamond Head for the first couple days. Once the swell hit 8-10, that was it for me. When it hit 12-14, it was insane.
I heard stories of Duke taking one wave from Diamond Head to Sand Island. Never thought it was possible until I saw this swell.

 

Biggest day for me was probably Bawa, Sumatra. Nothing huge but solid waves that were well overhead idk maybe 8-10. Cant say i surfed it that well either...Couple pix of average sized waves (some were a lot bigger and scared the crap outta me) from that day:

 

This is better than TV.

 

yeah right hahahahaha im real into these stories.

 

Turning towards the beach actually puts you in a worse situation. Here, you have to do what the guy on the far left is doing... Get deep early and get ready for impact. You usually get smashed down pretty hard on impact, then the board get ripped from your possesion, then the water sucks you straight back up... When you are lucky, you get one last gasp of air as the cycle pulls you from the sea floor back up behind the wave..... Usually you are holding your breath for about 15 seconds and if your board is still attached its a miracle.... But the worst case scenerio in my opinion is when the water detonates in front of you... Its one thing if you get under the lip and then get shredded, but once that wall explodes, it turns into a freight train across the top of the water and about 10 feet below. And it just shreds you like a ragdoll. The 10 foot wall then feels like a tsunami.... Just rips you limb from limb.... But basically what do you do in that scenario? At first you ask god why on earth you are even out there.... Then you scrape as close to it as you can, and then at the last second, when you realize its too late and you are fu**ed, you just duck dive as far down as you can, and go limp.... Limp is the best way to handle it...Just let it do its thing. Dont fight it.... Just pray.

 

Its gonna be trip of a lifetime for sure! We went in the fall as well...
first two from Bawa, third from Lagundri Bay, Nias

 

You guys have some great shots! This is much better than surfer magazine... I prefer to hear about 'normal' dudes scoring good waves

 

the biggest wave was this fat's chick's thighs I went surfing in last winter...

I almost never made it out alive....