BUILDING SWELL
I decided to head up the hill to join all the other photographers and kill the next few hours before our pre-arranged meeting with Thomas, Graham Ezzy, Aleix Sanllehy and Ross Williams at 3pm. Another hour passed and the swell continued to build, with some sets blanking out the horizon from beach level. In the past that has always been my benchmark where I reckon Jaws could be breaking but with no plan set in motion to head further up the coast it looked like we would be shooting Ho’okipa with the rest of the crowd. At 2.45 I found Thomas Traversa pensively gazing at the waves from the shade of the tree in front of the lifeguard tower obviously thinking along the same lines as me. ‘I reckon that’s almost Jaws size’ I randomly remarked not really expecting any major reaction from Thomas. But his reply was immediate, ‘Ok let’s go’ and off he went to de-rig and load up his truck like a man possessed.
Right at that moment Jason Polakow walked past and I shouted over to him ‘Hey ‘Pozza’ is that big enough for Jaws?’ He was obviously busy changing boards in the midst of the JP shoot but hollered back ‘Err yeah could be a couple of small ones sneaking in up there’. One thing I did not want to do at this stage was blow the whole day on a wild goose chase up to Jaws and with no jet ski or rescue cover in place, we could easily waste a few hours going up to check without any plan on how anybody would launch or be able to sail it. A few minutes later Timo came in off the water and when I mentioned that we might be heading up to the ‘Big J’, his eyes lit up as he rushed off to derig shouting ‘Don’t leave without me, whatever you do!’ I know sailing Jaws has been on Timo’s bucket list for a few years and maybe this was his one shot and there was no way he was going to miss out.
By this time, there was no stopping Thomas, his mind was set and by the time the rest of the crew rolled up for the 3pm meeting I was feeling the pressure that this day was going to be a write off. Ross was shaking his head with an obvious look of disapproval when he heard of the possible Jaws check, while Graham Ezzy seemed open to the idea but wanted to launch from the lighthouse and sail up, which apparently would require a 4 wheel drive which none of us had! Cut a long story short, and thirty minutes later the whole GA team, plus Timo were up on the cliffs overlooking Jaws desperately trying to fathom how big the sets down below actually were. We were alone on the hill. Not one other surfer, windsurfer or tourist had come up to even check it.
Most of the waves seemed to be barely breaking but Thomas reckoned he had seen one bigger set just before we arrived. With only a few hours of light remaining the clock was ticking but Thomas seemed totally relaxed and happy to just sit tight and wait. Another twenty minutes passed before a slightly bigger set reared up and then kind of faded. This certainly wasn’t the kind of day that would break big wave records but for the likes of Timo, Aleix and Cederic Bordes it was probably the perfect day to pop their Jaws cherry and tick it off the list!