Perhaps The Best Ma'alaea Footage Ever...

Grinmann

OTF status
Jan 18, 2009
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This recent swell looks even better than the all-time epic mid-seventies session with Reno, Sam Hawk, Owl, etc. - the one that utterly warped my planetary viewpoint (and that was only from looking at shots in the mag). Never spent much time on Maui, never came close to catching it on.
 
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r32

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Apr 1, 2005
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Been watching footy from lots of different spots and it does seem like this might be the swell of lifetime for quite a few spots.

1658239572833.png
 
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Sharky

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Feb 25, 2006
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lol. Mostly dropping in almost blind and trying to clear your vision in time to time the first turn/pull in. Looked like the boards were a bit longer than usual. Waves of a lifetime.
 

sussle

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Oct 11, 2009
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lol. Mostly dropping in almost blind and trying to clear your vision in time to time the first turn/pull in. Looked like the boards were a bit longer than usual. Waves of a lifetime.
i was thinking that when someone mentioned the howling offshore winds....blind takeoffs into freight trains :applause2:
 

Pico

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Aug 20, 2010
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Looks like the taper of the reef itself has not been affected by the harbor. That does not mean that the harbor and jetty are not contributing factors in what is clearly a singular phenomenon.


View attachment 134051
I lived on my boat there for a couple years. I say the Jetty combined with the Breakwall and even the hole that is the harbor entrance all contribute to the wave. The breakwall forces the water south... it builds at the entrance and the jetty cuts it and the wave forms. It used to be the Potagee Navy ( Sampans) would just pull their boats up on the sand in the corner before the ACOE blew the reef out.

I could be wrong. The far north corner is a hectic egress. Im more of a Rusty Pipes guy
 
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Waiehu

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Apr 1, 2009
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I lived on my boat there for a couple years. I say the Jetty combined with the Breakwall and even the hole that is the harbor entrance all contribute to the wave. The breakwall forces the water south... it builds at the entrance and the jetty cuts it and the wave forms. It used to be the Potagee Navy ( Sampans) would just pull their boats up on the sand in the corner before the ACOE blew the reef out.

I could be wrong. The far north corner is a hectic egress. Im more of a Rusty Pipes guy
Just curious, were you on Island when the Mcgregor house was still standing?
 

oneworlded

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Jun 4, 2004
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I lived on my boat there for a couple years. I say the Jetty combined with the Breakwall and even the hole that is the harbor entrance all contribute to the wave. The breakwall forces the water south... it builds at the entrance and the jetty cuts it and the wave forms. It used to be the Potagee Navy ( Sampans) would just pull their boats up on the sand in the corner before the ACOE blew the reef out.

I could be wrong. The far north corner is a hectic egress. Im more of a Rusty Pipes guy
Looking at the GMap, it looks like it could have been an even longer wave before the harbor was built. But maybe the boat channel also focuses the swell so you get that focus of energy where the wave rears way the hell up.
 

hotCheetos

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Mar 28, 2020
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Being dragged over the reef at La Perouse is my worst nightmare. There wouldn’t be enough skin left to graft your wounds. C
 
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ElOgro

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They were telling me to doxx myself with personal photos, the constant badgering went on for a few days. This is how you demonstrate power, to instill fear in another individual is the only way :monkey:

it's a reminder to never give up your personal info to strangers on the interwebs, it's been proven time and time again not to be a wise choice
Power Packed Panties is your band name.

I've known him for years from here as have many others. He's not bashful, shares aloha.

Dick move by you.
 

BaliIdiot

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Jan 9, 2008
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Ma'alaea is the only spot in the world where you would look at this picture and say, "Yeah, he's probably gonna make it!"


While growing up on O'ahu it seemed a thing for some of my more reprobate Punahou friends to be periodically shipped off to Maui to spend a semester or two cooling down at the Maui Predatory Academy, a boarding school favored by the indolent rich. Because of this I would hear regularly filtered back tales, always spoken in hushed tones, of the myth of Ma'alaea. One image that has stuck with me through the decades was a friend describing that because of the speed of the wave, it creates a very low angle, say 12 to 15°, that the white water angles up the face inside the tube. This means that you can sit 20 feet back in there completely dry, and because of the incredible down the line speed of the wave, you can be sitting there for a 100 fin whining yards unmolested. So even if you don't make it out, the ride is like nothing else one can experience in all of surfing.