Surfers Find Beauty and Beast in Jaws

Early on the morning of Nov. 26, the monster called Jaws rose from its slumber and snarled and hissed as it rarely has before. It was a display of nature both ominous and magnificent, amid which was a display of courage and athleticism to rival that in any other sporting arena.

“The day was off the charts,” said Laird Hamilton, a Kauai resident and the preeminent tamer of Maui’s wildest and most notorious beast. “I would say I rode maybe 100 waves, but for sure 50 or 60. That’s enough to last most people a winter.”

Jaws, for those unaware, is a remote surf break off northern Maui, which produces some of the largest and most powerful waves on earth, waves so big and fast that the only way to catch them is to get towed onto them, by a jet-powered personal watercraft, before they start breaking.

Those who ride Jaws -- who actually carve hard turns on its sheer and towering faces and bravely pull into its cavernous, grinding tubes -- are an elite group of tow-surfing veterans who have mastered their art, and the fickle nuances of the wickedly hollow break, through countless hours of trial and error.

The elite among this daredevil crowd -- Hamilton, Darrick Doerner and Dave Kalama, to name a few -- are the ones who stood out on “Big Tuesday,” when wave faces exceeded 50 feet. They were the ones who always seemed to be in the prime position, whether on boards specially fitted with foot straps, or on jet-skis, which serve as both tow and rescue vessels.

They were the ones who made surfing Jaws look easy, which of course it isn’t. As some found out the hard way.

Jaws chewed up and spat out three or four jet-skis, leaving them in splinters on the rocky beach. One surfer suffered a broken leg, another ruptured an eardrum. More than a few “touched bottom,” as Hamilton said, receiving various cuts and bruises.

“There was more carnage than I’ve seen on any other day out there,” Hamilton added.

In the middle to upper echelon were Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach, of San Clemente and Cardiff by the Sea, respectively. Though experienced on big waves, and proven tow-surfing stars elsewhere, they were relatively new to Jaws and it showed.

“It was really challenging because we both had wipeouts and spent a lot of time looking for our boards on the rocks,” Gerlach said, adding that they struggled in part because their boards were too long and not quite maneuverable enough.

Gerlach had never experienced a water bomb quite like the one that exploded at his heels, burying him beneath a mountain of whitewater, ripping his feet from his straps and sending him shoreward in a horizontal avalanche that seemed to have no end.

“You can’t get out of it until it’s basically done with you,” he said. “My first thought was that I’m not going to worry about it until I feel I can’t breathe anymore. So I kept my eyes shut and kept twirling around underwater ... and twirling and twirling. I don’t know how long it was but time stood still for a while.”

He eventually surfaced, only to have another wall of water sweep over him. Then another. Finally, he was picked up and whisked away by “some guy” on a jet-ski.

Australian pro Cheyne Horan took a horrific tumble during which, “I was hit so many times I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to die here,’ ” he said during an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin. “My body went numb and limp. I was seeing stars and felt as though I was on the other side, like I had died.”

That nobody died is perhaps the most surprising thing. Jaws, fronted by a sheer and towering cliff, is not a public beach and has no lifeguard presence. The nearest launching point is three miles away and it’s up to the surfers and their jet-ski partners to take care of themselves.

With so many newcomers this year -- there were about 20 teams in all on Big Tuesday -- veterans such as Hamilton fear there will be deaths sooner or later, and that the government will respond by trying to restrict or even ban the activity.

“If somebody gets killed, I suppose they could make it illegal and start arresting people,” Hamilton said. “But to arrest people, they’d need enforcement officers who are willing to go out there and actually arrest people. I’d hate to see it come to that.”

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Bill Sharp, director of the Billabong Odyssey and Billabong XXL Big-Wave Awards -- the former an ongoing adventure and the latter a seasonal contest rewarding the surfer who negotiates the biggest wave anywhere -- said Jaws had produced the early front-runners.

The problem for the judges, however, will be determining who at Jaws rode the biggest wave.

“During most great surf sessions, there are one or two giant waves that everyone remembers,” Sharp said. “At Jaws, there were probably 150 waves at 50 feet-plus. It’ll be like a Miss America pageant where we have 50 beautiful contenders. The debate will go on all winter.”

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The DVD “Strapped: The Origins of Tow-in Surfing” has reached mainstream markets. It chronicles the growth and development of the sport through the exploits of pioneers Hamilton, Kalama, Doerner, Rush Randle, Pete Cabrinha, Brett Lickle, Mark Angulo and Buzzy Kerbox. Cost is $24.95 for the DVD and $19.95 for the VHS.

Hot Water

The poaching case involving Jon Michael Hand of Downey, arrested last spring for the illegal sale of 1,194 sport-caught lobsters, was settled this week. Hand, who sold the crustaceans in the parking lot of a Southland hospital, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful take and possession and one count of unlawful sale of sport-caught fish.

He was fined $5,435 and ordered to pay $18,000 as restitution to the state to cover costs of a lengthy Department of Fish and Game surveillance effort leading to the arrest.

Hand also was put on probation for three years, meaning he cannot fish or be in the presence of anyone fishing during that period. The DFG is hoping such substantial penalties will serve as a deterrent to others.

Counting Whales

A few California gray whales have already been seen off the Southland coast, traveling south to Baja California’s lagoons, and the annual migration will begin seriously in the coming weeks.

An associated rite of winter is the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Cetacean Society’s long-term Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at Point Fermin on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

When the volunteer monitoring program began another season on Sunday, volunteers saw no grays but two fin whales, second only to blue whales in size, measuring to about 75 feet. Later in the day they saw two humpback whales.

On Monday they saw no whales but logged sightings of several dolphins.

Program Director Alisa Schulman-Janiger said the season was off to a lively start. Unofficial sightings over the last few weeks have included gray whales, humpbacks, blues, fin whales and dolphins.

More volunteers are needed and anyone interested may call Schulman-Janiger at (310) 519-8963, or e-mail her at janiger@bcf.usc.edu.

Hot Rods

* Cabo San Lucas: Nick Zebrowsky, 15, La Canada, caught a 500-pound blue marlin after an hourlong fight aboard the Andrea. At the scale, the crew noticed a tail in the mouth of the billfish, tugged and out came a 33-pound wahoo.

* Long Lake (Arizona): Branislav Djuric, Mesa, Ariz., reeled in a northern pike weighing 29.86 pounds. If approved by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, it’ll become a state record. Djuric’s secret: a special pike lure resembling a small fish brought from his home country, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

* Paulina Lake (Oregon): Ronald L. Lane, Olancha, Calif., has had his catch of a 28-pound 5-ounce brown trout certified as an Oregon record. Lane claims to have bagged 13 brown trout topping 10 pounds and two topping 20.

Miller Time

It wouldn’t be another ski season without a new Warren Miller film. His latest, “Storm,” is making the Southern California rounds with 8 p.m. showings. The schedule: Tonight at Pasadena Civic Center; Saturday at Wadsworth Theater in Brentwood; Sunday at Artists Theater in Laguna Beach (at 5 and 8); Tuesday at Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, and Thursday at Redondo Beach High.