Posts Tagged ‘Laird Hamilton’

Besides the fact that you look incredibly cool, kitesurfing is gaining in popularity because it combines so many other sports – wakeboarding, windsurfing, paragliding, snowboarding, and power kite flying, all rolled into one exhilarating extreme sport.

Who wouldn’t want to look like Ruben Lenten (ridersmatch)?

Of course it will take a fair amount of practice, perseverance and skill to get to this level of expertise but it ain’t impossible.

And its not only all about tricks. There’s nothing wrong with straight flat out kiting. The Crathorne family have just broken 3 records by being the first family to kitesurf across the English Channel, the busiest shipping lane in the world, from Dungeness to Boulogne in just 3 hours and 40 minutes. And the records they broke?

1. Lucy and Polly are the first Women to kite surf the channel to France
2. Polly is the youngest person at 16 to have kite surfed across and
3. Ralph is the oldest (for the moment) at 51.

And there’s been another landmark crossing. Having had to wait a year for the right weather conditions, 5 friends, Fraser Dooley, Martin Sandwith, Stuart Wood, Nick Elliott and John Flynn, have just successfully crossed the Irish Sea – a 110 mile 9 hour crossing from Cloghy in Northern Island to Silloth in West Cumbria. A massive undertaking. But despite the 9 hours battling the elements they had enough stamina left for a champagne celebration on the beach with family and friends!

Sir Richard Branson intends to kite the channel for his 60th birthday present to himself, accompanied by 5 time world champion Aaron Hadlow and Laird Hamilton of Big Wave surfing fame. “Kitesurfing is one of my favourite sports. I absolutely love the amazing rush you get when going at high speeds, in high winds, with the most beautiful kite acting as your only guide,” he said and added “My wife [Joan] swears I get more barking as I get older. This year I’ve almost crippled myself running 26.2 miles in my first marathon. Now I’m putting my poor 60-year-old bones through an arduous 24.4 miles, over water, hanging on to a giant kite.”

He too is making it a family affair – his daughter, Holly, son, Sam and his nephews will be kiting with him.

“Get the knowledge. Get the training. Get the insurance” says BKSA (British Kitesurfing Association). Good advice to follow if you are thinking of  getting started in this very popular extreme sport…

Stand up paddle surfing, or SUP, is a surface water sport, a variant of surfing where the surfer uses a paddle to move through the water while standing on a surfboard. Stand up paddle surfing is derived from its Polynesian roots. The Hawaiian translation is Ku Hoe He’e Nalu; to stand, to paddle, to surf, a wave.

The popularity of the modern sport of SUP has its origination in the Hawaiian Islands. In the early 1960s the Beach Boys of Waikiki would stand on their long boards and paddle out with outrigger paddles to take pictures of the tourists learning to surf. This is where the term “Beach Boy Surfing” originates, another name for Stand Up Paddle Surfing.

In the early 2000s Hawaiian surfers such as Dave Kalama, Brian Keaulana, Rick Thomas, Archie Kalepa and Laird Hamilton started SUP as an alternative way to train while the surf was down. As the years went on they found themselves entering events such as the Moloka’i to O’ahu Paddleboard Race and Mākaha’s Big Board Surfing Classic. Now you can find Stand Up Paddle Surfers in many of the Outrigger and Paddleboard races as participants within their own division.

One difference between the modern idea of surfing and SUP is that the latter does not need a wave. In SUP, one can paddle on the open ocean, in harbours, on lakes, rivers or any large body of water. One of the advantages of Stand Up Paddle Surfing is the angle of visibility. Because of the standing height over the water one can see both deeper into the water and further across the surface of the water, allowing better visualization of features others lower above the water may not be able to see, whether it is the marine life in the harbors, lakes and coves or the incoming swells of the ocean marching on the horizon.

We have used the material above from www.supglobal.com who claim to be the best stand up paddle website in the world which we most certainly agree with and therefore have much pleasure in directing you to their website – the link for which follows:  http://www.supglobal.com/

This great video below from rorycad shows what the sport is all about and gives you some basic lessons. Looks incredible fun and a must ‘to do’ for our next trip out west.

If you’ve been watching the news, or if you are one of the guys who keep a close eye one where the next best wave is going to be – you are probably already hanging out in California. Waves there are their highest in years.

A storm in Tahiti, 4,000 miles away from the west coast of America, has created a swell that has reached the coast of southern California in 4 days. That storm, coupled with a high tide, has created monster waves that have been pounding the coastline. 20 ft waves + are the norm – fabulous for extreme surfers, but very dangerous conditions for people not used to the brutality of these big waves. There has already been one death and the life guards are pulling out hundreds of bruised, battered and exhausted surfers daily.

The Wedge, which we have profiled before (I’ve found some more extreme waves…), has been benefiting from this swell with huge waves of over 20 ft. With its exposure to south swells and its unique wave shape, the wave comes in, ricochets off the jetty that guards the harbour mouth, rejoins and reinforces the waves coming straight in and forms towering peaks.

This is NOT a wave to take lightly. It can also be especially dangerous because the waves break close to shore, with little water to cushion the falls of body surfers and board riders before they hit the sand.

Laird Hamilton is there – of course he would be – but with a word of sage advice for all surfers: “if you, for one second, lose your train of thought, you’re going to panic… If you’re somebody who don’t know what they’re doing out there, and they weren’t wearing flotation devices, I mean, you’d be hauling them in. There’d be an ambulance there every day…”

So be careful everyone…

You can see for yourself the sort of action they’ve been getting at Newport Beach with thanks to rwongphotodotcom and dirtpro21
.

People rushed to the coastline to see the waves as they have been so incredible…

All sorts of other competitions are going on at the moment besides the Beijing Olympics.

Had you heard about the voting for the world’s toughest athlete? Willis kindly brought this to my attention because of my previous article on Laird Hamilton.

32 candidates had been chosen and were voted on on August 1st, the Mean 16 were voted on the 15th. Laird Hamilton had been chosen in the elite top 15. You might remember a previous article of ours, “Is Laird Hamilton the Greatest Big Wave Surfer Ever?”, but if not Laird has ridden waves of up to 70 feet at speeds of up to 50 mph. But it wasn’t until he surfed a colossal wave in Tahiti’s Teahupo’o that he was crowned the greatest big-wave surfer of all time. A wipeout in Teahupo’o, a particularly hazardous shallow-water reef break, would have meant certain death. But Hamilton survived what is widely considered the most dangerous wave ever ridden. wikipedia.org/wiki/Laird_Hamilton

As CamPAIN08 says, “the toughest athlete represents a lifetime of determination, competition, domination and tradition. Accomplished athletes, warriors and survivors, their outstanding achievements landed them on our list.”

The August 15th vote has been and gone and the last 8 are an illustrious bunch:

Adam Bender, Little League; Bodacious, a bull; Lance Armstrong, cylcist; Lance Mackey, musher; Rachel Scdoris, musher; Team Hoyt, triathletes, Terry Fox, running; Urijah Faber, MMA.

You must have heard about at least one of these, but I must say the bull brought me up short so I did a little more research and this is who Bodacious is: “The 1,800lb horned beast was referred to as “The World’s Most Dangerous Bull.” His specialty was delivering life-threatening head butts to riders. After one unsuccessful ride, Tuff Hedeman’s face needed reconstructive surgery. Later that year when Hedeman drew Bodacious again, he opted not to ride him.” wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodacious(bull)

The other 24 are no less illustrious. They were:

Ruben Gardner, wrestling; Muhammed Ali, boxing; Greg Lamond, cyclist; Bob Probert, hockey; Laird Hamilton, surfing; Mike Tyson, boxing; Ronnie Lott, American football; Evel Knievel, daredevil; Gordie Howe, hockey; Lane Frost, bull runner; Lou Gehrig, baseball; Archie Moore, boxer; Brett Favre, American football; Julie Krone, jockey; Mark Zupan, wheelchair rugby; Patrick Musimu, free diving; Dean Potter, climbing; Felix Baumgartner, base jumping; Grant Dalton, sailing; Justin Wadsworth, adventure racer; Matt Hoffman, BMX freestyle; Maurice Richard, hockey and Tony Conigliaro, baseball.

What strikes me about this list is the complete cross-section it covers. It is a very balanced and fair view on the effort and commitment sportsmen and women put into their chosen activity be it a mad harum-scarum extreme sport or a highly competitive traditional sport.

To find out more about these athletes go to camPAIN08.versus.com. You will also have a chance to vote for who you think should be the world’s toughest athlete of 2008. Check out the videos too. The TapouT video is pretty funny.

“Outracing the exploding lip of a breaking wave is like ski-ing in front of an avalanche” says Sean Collins of SurfLine Surf Forecaster.

Since the ancient Hawaiians first slid shoreward on their hand-carved Olo boards, riding the biggest wave of the day has continued to be one of surfing’s most revered accomplishments. But while the professional surfing circuit has blossomed over the last two decades, offering millions of dollars in prize money to agile small-wave performers, there has been no regularly-offered reward given to some of the true heroes of our sport -the BIG WAVE CHARGERS.

Surfer Pete Cabrinha surfin the biggest wave measured at 70 something feet.

NORTH AMERICA

Maverick’s

Maverick’s is a famous big-wave surfing spot off Half Moon Bay south of San Francisco. It is a world-famous surfing location in Northern California. Located approximately one-half mile (0.8 km) from shore in Pillar Point Harbor it is just north of Half Moon Bay at the village of Princeton-By-The-Sea. It occurs after a strong winter storm in the northern Pacific Ocean. Waves can routinely crest at over 25 feet (8m) and top out at over 50 feet (15m). The break is caused by an unusually-shaped underwater rock formation.

Mavericks is a destination for some of the world’s premier big wave surfers. Very few riders become big wave surfers; and of those, only a select few are willing to risk the hazardous conditions at Maverick’s. An invitation-only contest is held there every winter, depending on wave conditions. Thank you to ArtifactProductions for the following video:

Do you know how Maverkick’s got its name? In early March of 1961, three surfers, Alex Matienzo, Jim Thompson, and Dick Knottmeyer, decided to try the distant waves off Pillar Point. With them was a white-haired German Shepherd named Maverick, owned by a roommate of Matienzo. Maverick was used to swimming out with his owner, or with Matienzo, while they were out surfing. The trio left Maverick on shore, but he swam out and caught up with them. Finding the conditions too unsafe for the dog, Matienzo paddled back in and tied Maverick to the car bumper, before rejoining the others. The riders had limited success that day, surfing the tail end of the break and generally deeming the conditions too dangerous, but they decided to name the point after Maverick, who seemed to have gotten the most out of the experience. It became known as “Maverick’s Point”, and later simply “Maverick’s”.

Ghost Tree, Monterey Bay, California

A small crowd gathers on an idyllic knoll to watch Ghost Tree awaken. Bart Keagy

This picture was taken in on March 9th 2005 when Ghost Tree went huge and perfect and very very dangerous. At first light, Ghost Tree saw a 17-foot swell approaching from due west at 20-second intervals. Roughly two hours later, Don Curry, the man who named the wave, and his partner Ed Guzman rolled up on the channel just in time to watch a pair of 30-foot wave faces boom over the spot’s infamous boneyard and into Stillwater Cove. The swells continued growing until they were well over 45ft. Surfers were arriving from all over hoping to ride the wave.

It was first surfed in 2005 and sadly claimed a life in 2007. It is supposed to be scarier than Maverick’s and heavier than Waimea and is one of the most dangerous waves in the world. The height of the wave can reach 70ft with an incredibly long tube.

Nelscott Reef, Oregan

Nelscott Reef creates a reef break (where waves spill over to create whitewater) that is known as the only place on the Oregon Coast with the right conditions for tow-in surfing and it is the only spot to consistently produce double overhead waves, thus the event brings in big name surfers. Before 2003 no one had been able to paddle out in this region due to the shallow water and undertow, but it has now become recognised as one of the worlds premier tow in waves and will easily hold 30ft+ waves.

CORTES BANK, San Diego

Cortez Bank is a 17-mile underwater mountain range which rises to within 6 feet (2 m) of the surface and is marked by a nearby warning buoy. It was named for the clipper ship Stillwell S. Bishop that struck the rock in 1855 (and with a patched hull made it to San Francisco). This place has been known to ocean-going ships and fishermen for years. The waves there signal danger on the underwater rocks and are so big they show up on radar.

This wave is truly in the middle of the ocean. You have to take a 100 mile boat ride out to it. To get the biggest waves at Cortes Bank, you need light winds, low tides, and big storm swells from the northwest all at the same time. When it happened on January 19, 2001, California big wave riders scrambled to test their skill against the biggest, baddest wave ever ridden. These waves move so fast that surfers can’t catch them by paddling, so you need jet skiers to tow with a rope until they are moving fast enough to catch the wave.

This spot is for worldclass surfers only. It is dangerous. The interview with Mike Parson’s below (dubstylee510) will bring to light this awesome wave for you.

MEXICO

The Mexican Pipeline, Puerto Escondido

Mexico is home to two of the most powerful waves on earth. Deep down in southern mainland Mexico at Puerto Escondido is a beach break that surfers have coined “The Mexican Pipeline” (sastheatre) – a comparison to the surf world’s most famous wave, Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. The surf is seasonal, varying from small to medium in size during the dry season (November to April), and from small to big during the rainy season (beginning in early May). The change of seasons is dramatic, occurring within the space of a week and bringing with it an equally sudden increase in wave size. An added advantage during this time of year is that the evening session is often accompanied by strong offshore winds which can result in world class conditions.

“Killers” at Todos Santos.

1,700 miles north is a reef break called “Killers”, a huge wave which breaks 9-miles off the coast of Ensenada at Isla Todos Santos where waves can reach heights of 70 feet and over. It was the West Coast’s first legitimate big wave, discovered by the Windansea guys back in the ’60s, and unlike other waves with scary names – “widowmaker”, “dead man’s” or “shark pits”, “Killers” lives up to its reputation. It remains a rite of passage for any aspiring big wave charger this side of Oahu. As with most big waves, a number of factors have to intersect to make it all happen: in this case, the reef points directly into the maw of northwest swells, and is flanked by a serious underwater canyon that focuses long period swell energy down the point — often doubling the size of whatever swell’s out there. It’s a powerful and shifty deepwater wave, complete with weird boils and bumps in the face. It is best in the winter, breaks to the right and the best swells come from the Northwest. The bottom is huge rocks and the hazards are rips, rocks, urchins and skis. The other drawback to this wave is that it blows out early most days.

HAWAII

The North Shore of Oahu is world famous. It is the surfing capital of the world. During the winter season, giant swells generated in the north Pacific produce the most consistently spectacular waves in the world. There are a number of popular surf breaks lining the coast. The most famous are the Banzai Pipeline and Waimea Bay. If there is such a thing as a perfect wave, you’ll likely find it on Oahu’s North Shore. The big, glassy winter waves of this legendary surf mecca attract the best surfers in the world. Stretching for more than 7 miles, the beaches of the North Shore host the world’s premier surfing competitions including the Super Bowl of wave-riding, the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.

BANZAI PIPELINE

From November to February surfers congregate on the North Shore hoping to catch that perfect wave. Winter wave heights can get as high 20 feet, with faces up to 50 feet! This extreme surf is for experts only, and even then conditions are considered highly dangerous. World-renowned surf contests are held here from early November to late December. The Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing, which includes the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Ali’i Beach Park in Hale’iwa; the O’Neill World Cup at Sunset Beach; and the Billabong Pipeline Masters at Ehukai Beach (Banzai Pipeline), brings together the world’s best professional surfers.

The merciless waves of Pipeline break just 50 to 100 yards off the beach over a shallow reef making this one of the most dangerous surf spots in the world.

WAIMEA

Waimea Bay is the birthplace of big wave surfing. The Quiksilver Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, held at Waimea Bay, takes place each winter.

In winter, Waimea and other North Shore locations such as Pipeline and Sunset Beach host a number of surfing contests because of the large waves found here. These waves are created by winter storms in the North Pacific, and their arrival on O‘ahu’s North Shore are forecast accurately several days in advance. In summer, Waimea is known for it clear and calm water.

The surf break at Waimea Bay was significant in the development of Big wave surfing. Larger surf at the bay went unridden for years until November 7, 1957 when a handful of surfers finally paddled out and rode the giant waves that break off the northern point of the bay. While the surf only breaks big several times a year, Waimea was the most prestigious big wave surf break in the world for decades. With the advent of tow-in surfing, more and more big wave breaks have been discovered that are far superior in quality than Waimea. However, the bay still holds a significant place even in today’s world of big wave surfing.

PEAHI or “JAWS” – Maui

Peahi, otherwise known as ‘Jaws’, breaks over a perfectly shaped triangle reef. The winter swells that pound the Hawaiian shores come all the way from the Alaskan Aleutian island chain in the far north of the Bering sea. Unimpeded by landfall they march across thousands of miles of uninterrupted ocean hitting the Maui reef about a half mile offshore at Peahi at almost 30kms an hour. The force of these swells produce some truly monster waves in the 40-70 foot range.

The ‘Jaws’ surf break has reached its worldwide fame largely due to the frequent filming and photography of tow-in surfing legends performing there on enormous ocean waves breaking at the deep reef off the shore; famed big wave surfers such as tow-in surfing pioneers (also known as “The Strap Crew”-for the rubber straps on their short surfboards to anchor their feet against the forces): Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Darrick Doerner, Buzzy Kerbox, Brett Little, Rush Randle, Mark Angulo, Mike Waltze, Pete Cabrinha, and Brian Keaulana.

Jaws is famous for its qualit (TheBrewmaster). The reef and rocks at Jaws are shaped in a way that magnify incoming swell energy and produce clean and well defined right and left waves with gigantic barreling sections.

Santos del Mar

… And finally a cautionary tale for all wanna-be environmentalists out there:

“Southern Chile’s newest big wave surf site, Santos del Mar, and its surrounding coastline would be polluted if plans go ahead to construct a proposed US$1.3 billion dollar coal-fired power plant on the coastline of Chile’s 7th Region.

Local surfers and residents are concerned about the environmental degradation that would be caused by burning coal at the facility. Arsenic and lead poisoning of adjacent marine waters and agricultural lands are common from coal burning power plants, and the region surrounding Santos del Mar is remote and rural with plentiful fishing grounds and small-scale agriculture. Furthermore, the proposed cooling towers for the electrical generator would use marine waters via an industrial intake mechanism that is responsible for killing millions of fish and marine mammals per year in similar facilities worldwide”.

For more information about the wave at Santos del Mar, the proposed coal plant and opposition can be read at Josh’s blog: http://greensurfing.blogspot.com or www.savethewaves.org

Santos del Mar, Chile : photo courtesy Save The Waves

Laird Hamilton conquered Tahiti’s Teahupo’o on the morning of August 17th, 2000 when his death-defying drop into the big wave caught the world’s attention. This cemented his reputation as the greatest big wave surfer of all time. A wipe-out in Teahupo’o, a particularly hazardous shallow-water reefbreak in southeast Tahiti, means almost certain death.

His ride there is known by surfers worldwide simply as ‘The Wave’, and a shot of him riding The Wave made the cover of Surfer magazine, accompanied by the caption: “oh my god…”. Afterwards even Hamilton admitted that even he was pushing himself to the “max, max, max, max”. Such is his humility that he broke down and cried after riding it.

Is this the greatest big wave surfer ever?

It could be argued that no one has changed the face of a sport more in the last twenty years than Laird Hamilton has for surfing. He is a throw back to that time when surfers prided themselves on being all-round waterman. He is also known as the guiding genius of crossover board sports. He is truly amazing in the water. He has been instrumental in pushing stand-up paddling, foilboarding, windsurfing, kitesurfing and long distance paddling, as well as his surfing and he and some friends invented the tow-in, which in one winter seemingly doubled the number of waves that could be surfed in the world.

Laird has been a major ambassador of his sport, spreading his love and respect for surfing around the world.

A Surfer’s History:

Laird was born in San Francisco on March 2, 1964. He moved, with his mother, to Hawaii when he was still an infant, and even as a child showed an unquenchable thirst for adrenaline – footage has been released of him jumping off a sixty foot cliff into deep water at just 7 years old.

While a young boy, Laird met legendary 1960s surfer Bill Hamilton on Pupukea beach of the North Shore of Oahu; and introduced Hamilton to his mother. Bill Hamilton went on to marry Joann, and become Laird’s adopted father. What better father, mentor and coach could a boy like Laird have? and to top it off to have been brought up in one of the greatest surf locations in the world – north coast Oahu.

By the age of twenty, Hamilton had already become an accomplished surfer and could have easily pursued a career on surfing’s World Championship Tour. However, competitive surfing and contests never appealed to him and he is quoted as saying, “Contests are less about the one big wave than about your performances. Surfing is about your body of work. It’s about art. I would snap if I was letting someone other than the audience determine my fate. How does a musician judge his thing? By how many people love his music?”

In late 1992, Hamilton with some of his companions, such as Darrick Doerner and Buzzy Kerbox, started using inflatable boats to tow one another into waves which were too big to catch under paddle power alone. The technique, which would later be modified to use jet skis, was a revolutionary innovation. Tow-in surfing, as it soon became known, pushed the confinements and possibilities of big wave surfing to a whole new level, although they met with mixed reactions from the surfing community, some of whom felt that it was cheating and polluting. Hamilton explained that tow-in surfing was the only way to catch the monstrous sized waves such as those that can be seen a Peahi (Jaws) off the coast of Maui and the coastline of Tahiti.

In 1999 Hamilton sailed his windsurfer between the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai, some fifty miles away, in just under six hours. He later sailed his windsurfer back again.

He has also been credited with inventing the foilboard. The foilboard is an innovative surfboard which incorporates hydrofoil technology allowing a higher degree of precision and effectiveness of aerial techniques within the water.

Most recently, he has become the most public practitioner and proponent of stand-up paddle surfing, an ancient Hawaiian technique that requires an enormous longboard and a long-handled paddle, as well as considerable skill, strength and agility. Some “purist” surfers have blasted him for this, but Hamilton has called it a return to an old, traditional Hawaiian way of surfing.

However, it was his drop into Teahupo’o, which is widely considered to be the most dangerous wave ever ridden, which became the benchmark in his career and his life.

He has often been credited for being able to conquer such enormous ‘big wave’ surf because of his exceptional physical condition and stature. At 6′3″ (1.90m) and 220 pounds (102kg) he is able to take on larger waves which many smaller surfers could not physically handle.

Hamilton is now widely regarded as the “best of the best” at big wave surfing, regularly surfing swells of 35 feet (11 m) tall, and moving at speeds in excess of 30 miles (48 km) an hour and successfully riding other waves of up to 70 feet (21 m) high, at up to 50 mph (80 km/h).