“This is gonna’ be the best wave of my life.”
The Ocean Pacific It has been alive for several weeks, delighting surfers from Hawaii and California as well as terrifying homeowners on the beachfront. There is so much to see. Nature’s gorgeous hammer. Any surfer worth her salt has paddled into the XL, and likely cosplayed in Jaws or Waimea charger.
I certainly did, yesterday mid-morning, paddling out the front into what Surfline was calling 6 – 10 but it clearly being 20 – 30.
Yes, I bravely duck-dived those water walls on my Album twin, jawset, spinning on every corner I could, and getting an early score. But not as bravely as the baby who was towed into Jaws, dealing ageism a heavy hit.
The youngest person ever to catch one of the Maui beasts at 12-years-old, back in 2021, “Baby” Steve Roberson was towed into another, Wednesday, by the now legendary Billy Kemper.
“It was like a 40-foot back or maybe bigger,” Baby’s dad, Kaleo Roberson, told Hawaii News Now.
“I just saw this barrel coming and I knew I was like okay, here we go. I was like, this is gonna’ be the best wave of my life,” interjected Baby.
Although it looked at first like it was going barrel, the beast began to clamp, forcing the young man to straighten up and take a beating.
“It felt like I just got hit by a car or something right in my side and it put me into the water so fast and shot me up into the air and then I landed and got sucked over the falls,” he said.
After inflating his vest and getting bashed around a bit, Baby was rescued by a ski and declared, “The feeling like when I popped up is like a feeling like I’ve never had before. I just felt so alive and it was gnarly.”
I for one know what he felt-ish.
You can view it all here.
