Awesome footage big wave surfing- Billabong Pro Tahiti

Wow!!!! & double WOW!!!!

 

That was amazing! I just kept watching and watching it. Thanks!

 

Awesome :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

I would imagine riding one of those gigantic waves would really pump the adrenaline.....if you fall off you are gonna die!

 

Larry, ever do any parachute jumps or gliding.....The Gliding is probably safer but dont tell your insurance company. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Awesome videos, that break in Tahiti is not the biggest wave in the world, but it is certainly the thickest and very dangerous, it is breaking in very shallow water with a reef underneath.

I grew up surfing in Florida and even traveled to California to surf. I've been in some big waves, but nothing like these.

If you think these waves look awesome on video, you should see what a big wave looks like from the water, it makes your heart pound in your chest.

My younger brother was stationed in Hawaii when he was in the Army and lived on the North Shore. He married a Hawaiian girl. He lived at Rocky Point, just a block from the famous Pipeline. He said a 4 foot wave in Hawaii had the power of a 10 foot wave in Florida, and didn't dare go out when the waves got above 6 feet or so. The first time he ever went out in Hawaii he got his board snapped in half and almost drowned.

I miss surfing, on occasion I still have dreams about it. You can't beat it.

 

Well, I was never a pro, but a few of my buddies were. I never got into the contest scene. When I was in High School I used to build surfboards and sell them, for a while I thought that was what I was going to do for a living.

That video is real. With jet-skies surfers are now able to catch super large waves that were never possible to catch when I was a kid. To catch a large wave you have to get your speed up, or else catch it when the wave is very steep where you get cast "over the falls". There is no way anybody could safely catch those waves in Tahiti without a jet-ski towing them in.

Believe it or not, it is far more difficult to surf small waves than large. On a large wave you naturally have lots of speed that makes it easy to maneuver, on a small wave you have to generate your own speed. Though the East Coast generally has very small waves compared to most of the world, it has produced an amazing amount of champion surfers. If you can surf a small wave, you can rip a big one.

 

Oh, surfing large waves can be downright scary. When you come down to the bottom and turn, the G-forces almost cause your knees to buckle. The fin on your surfboard will literally vibrate and buzz that you can hear. I have been out in 15 foot surf, waves are measured from the back, the face of a 15 foot wave is actually about 30 feet. It is like riding a mountain. The weight of the water is tremendous, when a wave breaks on you it pulls you deep down in the water and turns you ever which-a-way it wants. You have to relax and let it take you where it wants, when it releases you, then you come to the surface. We got a huge storm in Florida once when I was a kid, I almost drowned that day, scared me good.

On average, about 5 surfers drown every year in Hawaii. Surfing big waves is dangerous.