Biggest wave you've ever ridden??

It was around 6-8' on the face during the Saturday of Hurricane Bill in '09, I was in Jax Beach, FL. Me and a buddy probably waited for 30 minutes after we got out back before we each finally decided to paddle for one. I remember the first wave I caught probably walled up over 6'.

One thing I remember though, after surfing for about 4 hours, the following day you were almost immune to waves that size. It was smaller, but I was paddling for 4-6' waves like I normally would for 2-3'.

 

I was down at Pavones this fall. Solid 7-9ft swell coming in with bigger sets probably pushing 12-15. Unbalievable

Had one set roll in though that wiped out everyone. I swear this thing was pushing twenty, at least it felt like it when it fell on my head. I got caught in the impact zone for three in a row. Hit bottom on the third. Totally worth it though

 

Surfnut, i was there in late august and found the same. All breaks in the dominical area were too large and closing out so we took that trip. Solid 10-15 footers connecting from the point to the river mouth. Also the largest waves, most brutal beatings, and longest hold downs that I have experienced. The reward of a several second DOH barrel ride far outweighs the travel $, time, the 2 wave hold downs, the ragdolling and bouncing off the rocky bottom ... fo sho!

 

12-15ft face...black's beach. 2005.

 

actually think it could of been last sunday in deal
6-8 foot faces definitely
caught a few outsiders that felt like the rocky mountains
http://www.youtube.com/user/JackClassical?feature=mhum

 

time in the water is all. i used to be scared as hell of anything over head high. the best thing for me was when my dad, who is one hell of a waterman even now at age 64, took me bodysurfing in 8-10ft closeouts when i was about 15. he showed me everything i needed to know to be safe. how to dive under the waves to avoid getting worked, where to paddle out, & most importantly, what would happen to you if you DID get worked...which was, in general, absolutely nothing if you're in any kind of decent physical shape. yea, you'll get worked & maybe even come up a bit short of breath, but you'll survive.
surfing bigger waves is a totally different experience than surfing fun sized waves. (& that's a totally relative benchmark. i find 6-8ft waves to be entirely playful. many don't.) but as you progress & spend more time in the water, your threshold will increase & what used to be scary won't be anymore.
after a certain size, tho, i think that if you're not at least a little scared, then there's probably something wrong w/ you...

 

big wave

not paying attention one day an 8 ft wall landed on my head and i rode underneath that thing for a good while, sucked!!!!!
otherwise I rode and actually stood up on a 5 ft wave....lake of mexico surfing. should be a good cane season this year....fingers crossed

 

It's like everyone else says, time in the water. Doesn't mean you still don't get butterflies, but you get a lot more confident in your abilities. Also, 12-15 ft at Pavones is a lot different than 12-15ft East Coast beach break. The paddle out was a little tough, I found it akin to a big day at Assateague or St. Augustine. Once I was out though, I found it to be much more forgiving. The wave is so consistent that you pick up on its nuances pretty quickly. I found a 12 or 15 ft wave to be about the same as an 8ft wave once you were on it. The drop was just a little longer (and way more fun). Plus, getting pounded in 70-80 degree tropical water in board shorts is way less intimidating than getting pounded with all your rubber on. Call me crazy but I actually enjoy getting worked when it's warm.

 

Yeah we did the same exact thing. We started in Dominical and then headed south for the swell. You must have had a different direction, we didn't see too many barrels. Even though there was some serious size, the wave was still slightly mushy. It held from about midway between the point and river mouth north to the beach front by the town. I rode a fish the whole time and absolutely had a blast. I could get into the waves early and just grove on down the line.

The day before the swell, some people were surfing little waist high peelers off the point and scoring some baby barrels though. It was way to crowded for me, but looked like a lot of fun. I highly recommend the trip to anyone, especially goofy footers, it's paradise!

 

I would love to see pictures of what everyone is calling 15 feet.

 

the biggest waves I've ever surfed has probably been on the east coast (8-10)... biggest waves I've seen is definitely Puerto Escondido with Hawaii close second. I didn't want to have anything to do with 20ft++ Mex Pipe.

 

So would I....didn't have a camera that day. To be fair, I didn't pull into anything I would call 15 ft. Biggest I got was probably in the 10-12ft range tops. I definitely looked up at the base and saw a lot of wave up there. The bigger sets were being picked off by some crazy Brazilians waiting outside...even they were cleaned out though by that monster set that came through

 

my biggest has had to have been defiently 10 ft maybe a little bigger. but ive been down in the dominican republic surfing and spending my spring break and its been about 4-6 ft and the breaks ive been surfing have been all reef or rock bottom and somewhat shallow. and well the biggest thing was that everyone out there even noticed i wasnt from there just cuz i was so comfortable in their surf just cuz the east coast is such a rough place to surf with how heavy it gets. and the locales here respected how i wasnt afraid to take off on the closeout shallow bombs just cuz im so comfortable in that kind of situation with surfing on the east coast.

 

10 - 12, Ocean Beach. Got caught on the inside and worked pretty good on a set, couldn't find the bottom or the top. Had to paddle in afterward to regroup! It is a humbling experience! HA HA

 

biggest wave was bill. it was 10-15 feet. i held on for dear life. i was on my fish. longest ride of that hurricane and the only wave i really remember.

 

Skegs your such a troll. Im at work so I screenshot'd a pic from my facebook album from the trip. Buoys said 12ft at 15 sec's this day.

 

That's 6.3 ft, it's the perspective that's throwing it off.

P.S. Adam Bradley has a small *****. Your girlfriend told me.

I already SS your SS, i will now troll your friends on facebook.