Local Wahoo's Fish Taco franchisee Mike Pietsch will be on the cover of Surfing magazine's annual Hawaii issue, its April issue, available everywhere by Saturday.

Not only is Pietsch pictured on the cover of an internationally known surf publication, he is on a very, very big wave—likely the largest gift he received on Christmas Day, when North Shore-based professional surf photographer Daniel Russo got the shot.

“;That wave was almost 25 feet Hawaiian (local-style measurement) or close to 50 feet,”; if measured by its face. Russo said. “;It was bigger than all the waves during the Eddie Aikau.”;

Russo previously had gotten shots of Pietsch at Pipeline, though they didn't meet until that day on an outer reef west of Waimea Bay.

But then, “;I was fortunate enough to catch a rare wave and have it photographed on Christmas ... let alone for him to be in a good spot”; to get the shot, Pietsch said.

The magazine got the photo in the nick of time for publication, said Travis Ferre, editor-in-chief. It replaced an earlier-planned image, and the magazine had tons to choose from as its writers and shooters had spent “;the season”; in Hawaii gathering stories and images for the issue, Ferre said.

“;I haven't seen anyone paddle in to a wave this crazy in a long time,”; unaided by a Jet Ski.

Pietsch has been surfing big waves for about 10 years but is not a pro surfer.

“;It's kind of rare to run an un-sponsored guy on the cover,”; he told “;TheBuzz.”;

Pietsch owns Wahoo's on Ward Avenue with his two sisters, Noel and Stephanie. The cover is Pietsch's first, but it is not rare for Russo's work to wind up there—he has had perhaps 15 cover shots published in the U.S. and internationally.

Local e-books debut

Honolulu-based Watermark Publishing has released its first three digital e-books via Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com for $9.99 each.

The titles are, “;Ben: A Memoir, from Street Kid to Governor”; by former Gov. Ben Cayetano; “;The Dream Begins: How Hawaii Shaped Barack Obama”; by Stu Glauberman and Jerry Burris; and “;No Footprints in the Sand: A Memoir of Kalaupapa”; by Henry Nalaielua and Sally-Jo Bowman.

The e-books can be read on Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook readers, as well as the iPhone or iTouch, with the right software download, said Dawn Sakamoto, Watermark director of sales and marketing. More titles are coming, and “;by the end of the year, all the black-and-white text titles should be available,”; she said.