Peahi Rocks Out

Bleary eyed, with just a quick cup of scalding Maui coffee and some cold cereal to sustain me, I fired up the trusty, crusty Honda XR 650, shouldered the camera bag with the big glass, and headed to Peahi (Jaws). Even at 00:dark:thirty there was a crowd at the junction on the Hana Highway. I slalomed around them and hit the dirt road only to find a huge mass of cars and people headed for the bluff. I passed most of them, got to the bluff and found several hundred people already there, and the jet skis circling below, though slinging few riders into the maws of Jaws–no helicopters around. No choppers, no up close pics. The boys (and a girl) were on hold and the crowd was restless. I took advantage of the turnover at the bluff’s edge to grab a primo shooting spot.

The waves were immense, but not the biggest I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure the Thanksgiving waves a few years ago were larger. But these had a super fat lip and plenty of power. almost every wave was tossing way out, breaking top to bottom.

To make a long story short, I shot about 450 photos, should have done some video but didn’t, and here they are. Sorry about the techno music, it helps if you think of a couple of blank-faced euro girlz grinding away at each other in an Amsterdam club with the video playing behind them. “Now is the time on sprockets when we dance.” It was the only music that remotely fit that was long enough, This is a big file since I wanted to show this off in higher rez. You may have to wait a while for it to buffer:
Peahi animoto

Some people had problems with the high resolution version above–it takes a long time to load no matter what. You can right click on the link, select “Save Target As” and save the whole 80MB file for your uninterrupted viewing pleasure. It will take a while, but I think the better resolution makes the shots. Here’s a low resolution, streaming version but the high rez one is worth the wait.