MASSIVE JAWS
Every winter in Maui, one or two monster swells are big enough to trigger the massive waves at Jaws to start breaking. There have been a few exceptional days when even Jaws starts to overload and Nik’s first ever session was on the mother of them all!
NB: I have not heard anybody ever saying that there has been a bigger day. It was actually my first day ever at Jaws. It probably was not the best day to get inaugurated. I went up there with Scott Carvill and Bjoern [Dunkerbeck]. I had just won the Aloha Classic, back in 1999. I had a snapped tendon on my left ankle. I had won the competition with the ankle strapped up. I was booked in for an operation a week after I was meant to go home. I extended my ticket by a day because Jaws was forecast. I had never sailed it and I always wanted to. We went up in Scott’s boat. Nobody could launch anywhere on the north shore except Kahalui Harbour.