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MASSIVE MONDAY
Big guns, broken bones and "Black Mamba" sets highlight a superb warm-up session for the Eddie at Waimea Bay
"Waimea just turned into a left!"
That was Mark Healey, looking at a closeout set after just getting out of the water at Waimea Bay on a day that he, and many others, were calling the biggest and best they'd surfed in years.
And Healey should know: He was at the Beach Park at 4:30am waiting for the sun to come up to see exactly what this long-forecasted, heavily-anticipated swell would bring.
Twelve hours later, the verdict was in: "I have never surfed a day as consistently big as it was today at Waimea with that many goers out."
The festivities began at 7:30am when Jamie O'Brien and Ryan Hipwood paddled out. By 10:26, the first closeout set rifled through the Bay. By noon, there had already been scores of epic rides on true, Hawaiian-style 25-foot waves.
Shane Dorian: "I got a huge wave with Mark Healey that was probably the biggest wave I have ever paddled into in my life."
When Shane Dorian makes a comment like that, you know the day was something special.
"It was super-huge Waimea," Shane adds. "I haven't surfed Waimea like that since I was really young; probably my early twenties. It was super legit -- completely closed-out sets every now and then which never happens, really.
"The last two hours there were probably ten waves that were 25 feet, which is really rare. Usually when you surf Waimea when it's really, really big you might have one chance at a 25-footer and most of the time you're not in the perfect spot so you miss it or whatever. And then, you miss it, and that's it for the whole day. Just now I missed one and half an hour later there was another one, and half an hour later there was another one...pretty cool."
Shane's day was complicated a bit when a wave mowed him down - he thought he could outrun it, but it caught him from behind, he wiped out, and his board hit his leg and apparently busted his fin off.
Reef McIntosh was paddling behind Dorian, saw something strange and said, "Shane, I am going to save your life right now. You're riding a twin fin."
Shane paddled in and grabbed a back-up -- the same 11-year-old board he used in the last couple Eddie's.
"That could have been bad," Reef said. "Especially with the waves he's catching? I think you need three fins."
Dorian wasn't the only one to get clipped today. In fact, the day was marred by an injury to former two-time World Champ Tom Carroll, who broke his leg and ankle when the lip hit him from behind. Tom somehow made it to the shore, crawled up the beach and headed straight to the hospital. Carroll had been invited to compete in the Eddie; those plans are now put on hold.
Speaking of the Eddie, Contest Director George Downing announced today that the contest is 90 percent likely to run tomorrow, which suits the surfers out there today just fine.
Mark Healey: "After everyone had a chance to surf all day today? You kidding? Guys are going to go hard tomorrow."
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December 8, 2009
