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Published: September 7th 2008
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I sent the following email to my surfing buddy, Tom, a few days after he left Bali for his home in Singapore. Tom is a big-wave surfer who spent 7+ years surfing in Hawaii and who has been coming to Bali for several years. I owe him a debt of gratitude for teaching me the tricks of the trade and bringing my game to the next level. Note that editions have been made for elder family members and some of my more polished former (and hopefully future!) colleagues. 😊 I have also included a glossary of referenced surf terms at the end. I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures to record the event -- I had no idea that the waves were going to be so big that day and have yet to meet anyone who is willing to watch me for five hours for the sake of one shot anyway. However, I did find a representative photo of Ulu Watu's "Outside Corner" on the Internet in order to give you an idea of the wave size that day.
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Dude,
You missed a ******* EPIC session today!! I started at Ulus and it was pumping - Racetracks was absolutely critical (double overhead easily) and broke all the way to the cliff. Outside Corner was going off so I paddled out. It was ******* gnarly out there man - massive walls coming through, not another soul out there and, most disturbingly, ******* pods all around. I chickened out cuz it was so heavy being there solo. Then I caught a nice yet late wave on the main break and took it all the way to the cave. Felt like a ***** after coming in so I headed to Dreamland after a quick lunch. Dreamland was going OFF - just as big as Outside Corner and the reef right was even bigger (8 - 10 foot Hawaiian?). I took it on the head about 25 times, caught some squishy but fun inside waves but then... Finally... After a good 1.5 hours into the session and 3.5 hours into the day I was all alone on the outside left with the perfect clean-up wave setup, paddled hard for the first one, and at the critical moment where I usually go out like a ***** I stood up quickly and caught this ******* monster. I dropped left forever (15-20 seconds??) in crystal clear face just screaming at the top of my lungs the entire way. Finally the whole thing closed out right and left and I just fell backwards and had the longest hold down of the day (it was still really big!). Dude I am so stoked right now it is incredible. Feel like I'm 17 again after I broke a QB's arm on a blitz and caused a fumble that went for a TD. You are responsible for not only the birth of a daughter this month but also a new big wave surfer!!
D
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Ulus: Short for Ulu Watu, which is the most famous surf break in Bali and arguably one of the top 10 surf breaks in the world. To get to the wave, one must first descend into a cave and then exit into pounding surf that breaks on a very shallow reef and later into a 100 foot+ cliff. "Outside Corner" is the biggest wave at Ulu Watu while "Racetracks" is the fastest and most shallow/dangerous.
Pumping: big swell is hitting
Critical: if you don't catch the wave just right then you could wipe out badly and get injured
Double Overhead: waves whose peak-to-trough size is roughly 2x the height of the average surfer or roughly 12+ feet
Going off: outer breaks only break on very big swells, in which case they are "going off"
Pods: pod-like reverberations in the water which indicate the presence of under-water obstacles like rocks and reef
8-10 foot Hawaiian: Hawaiians are pretty macho when it comes to wave size so they measure waves from the back rather than from peak to trough in the front; the rule of thumb is that peak to trough is 2x Hawaiian so I was looking at 16-20 footers on the right hander at Dreamland
Took it on the head (a.k.a., hold down) when a wave breaks on top of you and you are held down for several seconds or up to a minute... this is one of the most dangerous aspects of big wave surfing
Clean-up Waves: the biggest and most outer breaking waves that you will see if you watch the entire wave cycle
Face: the part of the wave that isn't white and is on the verge of breaking - this is where every surfer wants to be in order to maneuver
Closed out: when the wave crashes and there is no more face to surf in one's immediate vicinity
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Carly
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Hawaii Waves
I will tell you about our experience with Hawaiian waves when we return from our trip! We leave Sept 11th for 10 days, I can't wait. We are trying surfing lessons. Sounds like you are a pro with all your lingo!