The perfect At least two Hawaii residents will be among an elite group of surfers who will spend the next three years hoping to catch a 100-foot wave.
monster wave
2 local surfers take a
big-money dare to ride
mammoth swells worldwideBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com"The Billabong Odyssey will combine the world's best big-wave surfers, jet-powered watercraft tow vehicles and cutting-edge weather tracking technology to chase down the biggest swells the world's oceans have to offer," an announcement on the Billabong Web site said.
The record is held by Mike Parsons, who surfed a 66-foot monster 100 miles west of San Diego in January.
The surfer who rides the biggest wave in a given year of the three-year odyssey will receive $1,000 per foot of wave. So if there is a 100-footer out there, that's a healthy $100,000.
"I think the 100-foot wave thing is a little bit mythical," said Oahu surfer Brock Little, 34, who plans to take the challenge teamed with Brian Keaulana, 37.
"I'm sure they're measuring it from the face, so that would be 45 to 50 feet from the back," he said.
Little said he is not sure how big his waves were when he placed seventh in two Maverick Big Wave Contests off Northern California in 1999 and 2000, but they were less than 40 feet.
"I'll make a lot of money if I win," Little said yesterday, but even if participating ends up costing him money, "I want to be involved in it no matter what."
It is not the first time big money has been offered for surfing the biggest wave: In 1997, K2 entered the surf-gear market and offered a $50,000 prize for whoever could ride the biggest wave of that winter.
That contest was for traditional surfing, where one paddles out to catch the wave. It spurred concerns that people who were not capable of handling big waves would end up hurting themselves. Though the risk is extremely high, the Odyssey will only include known big-wave surfers who have been invited to try.
Surfers invited include Laird Hamilton, Ken Bradshaw, Shane Dorian and Kelly Slater.By using a jet-powered watercraft to catch a wave, surfers have expanded their capabilities.
Little expects there will be rescuers and helicopters on the scene, as well as plenty of still and video photographers to document the rides.
Where will the 100-footer be? No one knows, but Billabong is handling looking for it, contacting the surfers who said they would go and getting them there. Possible locations include Hawaii, Chile, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and the South Pacific, according to Billabong's Web site. The first trip this fall will likely be in the Pacific Northwest.
Philip Ward, Billabong's national marketing manager, said he does not know the cost of the project but that the company will be seeking other corporate sponsors to help.
"For your average surfer, it's incomprehensible," Ward said. "These guys are going out and doing this for their own personal fulfillment."
And risking their lives for it.
"Anyone out there trekking and stalking a 100-foot swell is not going to necessarily find a pretty-ocean type of day," said Bernie Baker, an Oahu-based surfing writer, photographer and contest judge. "I think it's going to be a fairly rough and violent sea. Waves of that height are much closer to a storm.
"If you're up to the challenge and well trained, I think it could be done," Baker said. "It will be a pain to get into a wave that size or to ride it successfully. I think it's going to be akin to Evel Knievel's Grand Canyon jump."
The water surface will feel like "hard cement, not soft cement," Baker said, and even with jet-powered watercraft rescuers right there, "you have to be able to reach for the rescuer. If you're knocked out underwater, they can't find you."
Honolulu's Ocean Safety Capt. Edmund Pestana does not like the sound of it. "It's a deadly scenario for everyone involved, including the cameramen, the boatmen and the surfers, as it's been in the past for even 25-foot waves."
One of the first to use jet-powered watercraft to surf bigger waves in the early '90s, Buzzy Kerbox of Maui, does not want to go. "Extreme surfing has pushed the limits in the past few years, but this is really pushing the limit. I don't care how you measure it, a 100-foot wave is a monster wave.
"I don't think I'd want to ride a 100-foot wave. I've ridden probably a 60-foot face, if you measure the face, at Jaws (off Maui)," said the 44-year-old, who won the 1978 Sunset Beach World Cup and 1980 Australian Surf-a-bout during seven years on the pro tour. "I don't know how much more fear I could stand."
Yet Kerbox understands what motivates those who have to try. "Like any sport, once you've done it for a long time, you want to go higher and higher. When you go after the big ones, there's always that risk, but if you pull it off, it's a lot of excitement."