Robby Swift was actually supposed to be on a snowboarding holiday with his family on 23 January. But because big waves were forecast for Hawaii, the Maui local postponed his flight without further ado and had an outstanding day in Jaws. You can see one of the best pictures of the day as a "Hot Shot" in surf 3-2023 (in stores from 22 February) - we'll show you many more here in the gallery! Robby reports on the extraordinary day here:
Have you been following this swell for a while and had it on your radar?
I track all the swells and this one looked like it was going to be big, although it didn't look that good until a few days before. I'm using Surfline, which had 20-25 feet forecast until the day before, and Windguru, which had 2.8 metres and 18 seconds as a forcast until a few days before. Normally the waves get smaller and smaller the closer the day they arrive. But this one had suddenly really picked up the day before. Surfline had upgraded the forecast to 30-35 feet, Windguru was a bit more cautious with 3 metres and 19 seconds.
The best guide for Hawaii is the tsunami warning buoys, which show what to really expect. Luckily, I looked at the furthest buoy to the northwest just before going to bed, and it was still "only" 14 feet at 18 seconds. That's big, one of the biggest swells of the year, but not exceptional. If I'd seen the next measurements, I wouldn't have got any sleep! When I woke up at 5:30am to stretch and saw that the prediction had jumped up to 19 seconds and 26 feet, my heart dropped. It was actually just a fraction smaller than the swell they were calling "Super Saturday," and that Super Saturday only had an hour or two of waves that big. But this swell that was coming at us now stayed constant at that size for about six or seven hours and peaked right when we went out around 2pm.
How did you prepare for this and how long did it take?
I had already prepared everything the evening before. I was supposed to go on a family ski trip two days before, but I had to change my flight because of the swell. So I was alone in the house and had hours to fiddle around without the kids and was all anxious in anticipation of the huge waves! Over the last few weeks, we've been having fun with Sarah (Hauser, editor's note.) at the gym doing CO2 resistance training and oxygen deprivation training, so I felt like my ability to hold my breath was pretty good. I got the ski ready the night before and got my Jaws windsurf board, towboard, a spare board and my sails ready from 4.5 to 5.0. I stretched as much as I could the night before and tried to relax.
Do you have a jet ski yourself? And what kind of buoyancy aid do you use?
I have a Patagonia inflatable waistcoat and a customised wetsuit with buoyancy aids from NeilPryde. I checked again that the air cartridges were all screwed in tightly and that the little pins that made them burst were all working properly and that the air chambers were tight. All very important points! And yes, we have a jet ski. My Argentinian friend Dany drove it for us. When we arrived, he was pulling Trevor Carlson in and securing it, so I waited a bit because I didn't want to go out without security. You definitely shouldn't do that in Jaws!
What equipment did you use on the day, sails, board, fins? And did you adjust anything differently than usual?
I used my new custom Jaws board, which Werner (Gnigler, JP Shaper, editor's note.) based on several earlier versions of my Jaws boards. These have got shorter and shorter over time, from around 250cm in the early 2000s to 243 around 2010, and more recently I've had a couple of around 238cm boards that I really liked. They were closer to my normal boards than the earlier, more gun-type versions, but still robust. About five years ago I ordered a 238cm normal weight board and that has been my favourite Jaws board ever since.
This year I wanted to try something even shorter and closer to my Hookipa boards, the JP Ultimate Wave. So I ordered a 231 cm long, 57.5 cm wide board with 88 litres. For comparison: the normal Ultimate Wave 88 is 228 cm long, 58.8 cm wide and just a little bit longer and narrower. This board is built in the same way as the standard boards, so it weighs the same and I just have the front hole of the front footstrap one centimetre further forward so that I can extend the stance a little. I used my normal Combat 4.7, which I feel most comfortable on, and rigged it exactly as usual. However, I have fitted slightly smaller side fins from my Tectonics EVO quad fins. I normally run 13cm at the back and 9cm at the front, on this day I used 8.5cm at the front, which felt a bit easier on super fast runs.
What were the conditions like when you went out on the water?
It was absolutely massive. Much bigger than I had imagined and very similar to the Super Saturday swell we had a few years ago (15/16 January 2021, editor's note.) . The wind was ok, but it was very offshore, so the combination of the big and extremely fast westerly swell and the very offshore winds made it almost impossible to catch the waves. You had to position yourself very low and try to go downwind and get a lot of speed behind the previous wave and then hold it in the lull zone between waves to get the next one. It's a really scary game and I had several very close calls when I thought I was too far in and the waves were going to catch me. When I got to Jaws, I actually sat on the jet ski for about an hour wondering if I was even going to go out. I had missed the start of my snowboarding trip with the family and it was huge and beautiful and sunny, but I was kind of scared and not sure if I really wanted to.
I sat on the jet ski for an hour and wondered whether I would go out at all."
Why did it feel different than usual?
Once you were on a wave, they were faster than I've ever experienced on any other day except Super Saturday, and surprisingly choppy. It was difficult to time the bottom turn as you had to ride over these chops in the waves to get to the flat spots and then try to get a bottom turn.
What were your highlights or outstanding moments of the day?
Once I had overcome my initial fear, I felt good. I was really scared and it took me a lot of effort to rig up at all. After that I had some pretty decent turns from much deeper on the wave than before. I'd seen videos of the last big swell on YouTube that morning and remembered how much deeper you had to position yourself and initiate the turn to make it look good. So I was proud of myself for getting it right a few times.
Were there also dicey situations or moments when the fear returned?
The hardest thing about Jaws is that you have to be very deep and far in to catch the waves. You always think you'll never get a wave because the wind is so offshore that you have to go through a kind of "back door" onto the waves and almost get in behind the peak to be able to get down them at all. Sometimes you suddenly realise that you're just too deep and you either get out and hope that no bigger wave comes after you, or you have to ride super high on the wave to try and make it around the section.
I would have had more good turns if I hadn't been pushed off by tow surfers on three different occasions."
It really is extremely scary every time and probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. I actually would have had more good turns if I hadn't been pushed off by tow surfers on three separate occasions. I was super deep a couple of times and in the perfect spot, but when they do that it really takes your concentration away and you can't lean into the turns or go where you want to go because there's someone with a jet ski in the way and a tow surfer behind them.
On my last wave I went into a nice cutback under the lip and then had the best wave in front of me for the next turn. But there was a guy who pulled a surfer way onto his shoulder and that pushed me back into the critical area because I couldn't ride the line I wanted. I actually felt like I was pretty close to getting into a barrel from the perspective I had, but with the windsurfing stuff that's a very scary prospect!
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When you look back, what did you do right or wrong that day?
I really enjoyed surfing there. I wish I had set up a bit earlier and caught more waves. And I really wish I had gone tow-surfing after the windsurfing session as it was exceptionally empty because there were so many people at the "Eddie" (the legendary surf contest "Eddie would go" in Waimea/Oahu, the ed.) were. However, I had a plane to catch at 10pm and was kind of happy to be alive and well after windsurfing. It's easy to look back in hindsight and wish I'd gone surfing again, but at that moment I was pretty happy with the waves I'd got windsurfing and probably made the right decision!
Did you take full risks on the water or did you play it safe?
I played it a bit safe. But I still had a few good turns. As I said, if the tow surfers hadn't got in my way, I would have made more of those three waves, they were really good. It was smaller the next day, so I would have liked to go out again because it's always a bit easier the day after. But I also wanted to go snowboarding and spend time with the family, so I can't complain! I'm loving my latest Jaws board so I'm hoping for more waves this winter, hopefully with a bit less offshore wind to really max it out!
The way back was one of the scariest things that day."
How was the way back?
The way back to Maliko was one of the scariest things that day. Actually, the way out was scary too, but somehow it's always easier to get out than back in. There were five or six sets of mast-high white water pushing into the bay of Maliko. I don't think I've ever seen it that big there. The water was pushing up the river and coming out after the sets. It was almost impossible to maintain a stable position on the jet ski without going full throttle. I was very lucky to have Kevin Pritchard with me, he is extremely experienced and went out as soon as he saw a huge set on the horizon and then came back in at the perfect moment when I had finished the truck and the trailer was in the water. I saw other people's trailers getting sucked into the water there and pulling the car in with them, so I was very careful with my timing and in the end we came out completely unscathed. Definitely not a relaxing end to a very hectic day!
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Interview: Finn Mullen
