The history of big wave surfing reveals a simple pattern: a surfer tastes the thrill of a big wave and hungers for more. This appetite, properly nourished, leads to the continual discovery of new places and new possibilities. Let’s start at the beginning:

Makaha, West Shore, Oahu

Makaha is considered the birthplace of big wave surfing. Apart from ancient Polynesian surfers, the break is considered to have been discovered in 1937 by John Kelly, Wally Froiseth, and some others from Waikiki. Kelly and Froiseth were among the first surfers to begin to ride waves in an angle rather than straight down the face. To improve their new style of riding they created the “hot curl” board, with narrower tails and V-hulled boards that allowed them to ride in a sharper angle than anyone else. These new boards allowed these surfers to approach and attack the bigger waves that Makaha had to offer.

As a teenager, George Downing joined the Makaha crew in the mid-‘40s and became the original icon of big wave surfing. A champion swimmer and paddling champion, George Downing is credited with designing and building the first true big wave surfboard, when he combined the hot curl boards with a fin that he had seen on a visit to Malibu, California. After a short military stay in Hawaii, Walter Hoffman returned to join George Downing, Woody Brown, and the other Hawaiians, becoming the first Californian to regularly surf at Makaha; he was soon followed by buddy Buzzy Trent. In the early 1950s, a group of California surfers joined them and began to spend their winters living in army-built huts and eating whatever they could find on the land or in the ocean while they waited for big waves. As more people joined the life of these first “beach bums,” they were ahead of the soon to be considered “counterculture” lifestyle.

The real exposure of Makaha came in 1953, when an Associated Press photographer snapped a picture of Buzzy Trent, George Downing, and Woody Brown all surfing the same face of one of Makaha’s 15-footers. The photo was published all over America, blowing the minds of surfers and non-surfers alike. This single publication can be credited for the beginning of the almost ceremonial exodus to Hawaii in search of big waves. Dozens of people, like Fred Van Dyke, quit their jobs, if they had them, and headed out to Hawaii to join the earlier big wave pioneers. The future face of big wave surfing, Greg Noll, arrived in Makaha for the first time at age 17 in 1954 and, joining the others, lived in a hut on the beach for about seven months on his first stay. These Makaha pioneers genuinely epitomized the rebellious youth of the 1950s. Money, school, jobs, and everything else were thrust into the background as this group of guys focused completely on finding bigger and bigger waves, chasing the ultimate thrill.

North Shore, Oahu

The same group who discovered Makaha, John Kelly, Wally Foriseth, and friends, are also credited with being among the first of surfing’s modern era to ride the waves of the North Shore as early as 1938, making day trips from Honolulu. While these early expeditions focused mostly on Sunset Beach, George Downing was really the first to explore the other breaks throughout the ‘40s. But a tragic incident in late 1943 kept the North Shore largely un-experienced and riddled with taboos well into the ‘50s. On December 22, Woody Brown and 17-year-old Dixie Cross paddled out at Sunset Beach—until then, only surfed a few times by a small handful of guys—and met real trouble. They arrived in the afternoon to 12-foot waves, but the waves greatly increased in size while they were out; unable to reach the shore, they decided to try and make the three-mile paddle to Waimea Bay’s channel. They arrived to 30-foot monster waves that were closing out the channel while they tried to charge for the shore. Woody eventually washed up naked and barely conscious, while Dixie Cross was never seen again.

As a result of this, strong superstition reigned right through the ‘50s, and the North Shore attracted only a small crowd of about two dozen surfers, mostly the same standout surfers from Makaha. While George Downing and Buzzy Trent were thought to be the best, Hawaiians Kealoha Kaio, Joey Cabell, Sammy Lee, and Kimo Hollinger and Californians Fred Van Dyke, Greg Noll, Peter Cole, Jim Fisher, Warren Harlow, Pat Curren, and Jose Angel joined them as notable surfers. With the slow opening of the North Shore and the constant stream of new surfers pouring into Makaha, there began to be a split between the waves of the North Shore and Makaha’s well-proven wave. Makaha was just one wave that had been all but conquered, but the North Shore presented new challenges and lots more options for surfing.

Greg Noll helped lead the California surfers in their expeditions to the North Shore during the 1950s, as they either made single day trips for hours at a time or camped on the beach for days at a time. These guys continued what Downing, Brown, and Trent had started before them, innovating what would become the stereotypical beach lifestyle: no jobs, no responsibility, just surfing. In the beginning, there was only one house on the North Shore that these surfers all piled into, sleeping on the floor or on army mats. Coconuts, fish, turtles, pineapples, stolen chickens, and anything else they could find made up their diet. Without the luxury of money and the company of girls, when there were no waves, they did anything and everything they could to fight boredom, but when there were waves, these guys were in them all day long.

Waimea Bay

The fear of the North Shore following Dixie Cross’s death gradually faded, but the fear of Waimea Bay remained strong until it was finally conquered in 1957, when Greg “The Bull” Noll and a small group of California surfers finally paddled out in 15-foot surf. It had been something this group of seemingly suicidal big wave riders had actually feared, and the conquering of it was the beginning of a new era. On November 7, 1957, Greg Noll and Mike Stange were headed toward Makaha from the North Shore when Noll unexpectedly pulled off the road at Waimea, where they were later joined by Pat Curren, Mickey Munoz, Fred Van Dyke, Harry Church, and a few others. After staring at the humongous waves for a while, Noll supposedly drumrolled on his belly and paddled out, followed by Mike Stange. Once they were safe in the channel, some more from the group paddled out after them. Though Noll did not surf alone, his rashness and thirst for thrill that day landed him the credit for becoming the first person to surf Waimea, and he singlehandedly opened up what would become the world’s most popular big wave spot.

When the curse of Waimea broke, it broke wide open. Shortly after this first historic day, the movie The Big Surf really introduced Waimea to the world and consequently established it as the center of surf media attention for more than a decade. Throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, Waimea basked in media glory, featured in movies, newspaper articles, and magazine spreads. If it was happening in big wave surfing, it was happening at Waimea. Pat Curren and others continually improved the design of the big wave surfboard and kept Waimea’s surfing on the cutting edge. Buzzy Trent supposedly coined the phrase “elephant gun” (later to be shortened to “gun”) when comparing the size of a gun required to shoot an elephant with the size of a board required to ride big waves. Greg Noll attempted to make a living out of the sport’s growing popularity, producing boards, clothing, and everything else. The ‘60s saw big wave surfing milked for all it was worth before it faded out in the ‘70s with the short board revolution.

Even after Waimea was open, it was still Makaha where Greg Noll rode what would be called the biggest wave ever ridden. In December of 1969, during the largest storm of the twentieth century, Greg paddled into a 35-foot closeout, making it down the face before the wave closed out on him. He eventually made it to the shore, but soon after and as a result of the experience, this man who had done so much to push the limits of big wave surfing decided to leave the sport behind.

While big wave surfing took a definite back seat to the craze of the ever-innovating short board, it was still Waimea that housed the big wave comeback in the early 1980s. Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo, two Waimea experts, became the faces of this rejuvenated interest in big wave riding. The Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau contest, held at Waimea and debuting in 1986, was also instrumental in reviving big wave interest.

While the new interest in big wave surfing started at Waimea, like before, it quickly spread, as once again surfers began to search for bigger and bigger waves and find them in the most unexpected places.

Maverick’s

The story of Maverick’s is just as fascinating and unique as any, but it shares certain characteristics with the earlier pioneers of big wave surfing in Hawaii. It seemingly always starts with a group of guys (or in the case of Maverick’s, one guy) determined to surf the biggest waves they can find. The place is actually named after a dog. In 1961, a group of surfers surfing the smaller inside waves brought along their German shepherd named Maverick, who followed them into the waves. It would be years after that before man or beast would ever attempt to ride the big surf at Maverick’s.

In 1975, high school student Jeff Clarke, perhaps a cross between man and beast, became the first person ever to ride the huge waves Maverick’s had to offer, and he did it completely alone for 15 years. The goofy-footed surfer taught himself to ride switch so that he could face the wave on both lefts and rights. After his first ride in 1975, Jeff regularly surfed Maverick’s for the next decade and a half, but the obscure location and horrifying conditions kept him alone until 1990, when two other surfers finally agreed to join him. Santa Cruz surfers Dave Schmidt and Tom Powers became the next two to ride Maverick’s, and the word finally got out. After the 1992 publication of Maverick’s in an article called “Cold Sweat” and the huge swells that followed over the next two years, Maverick’s became an official big wave spot.

The most infamous day in Maverick’s history was December 23, 1994, when Mark Foo accompanied Ken Bradshaw to surf Maverick’s for the first time. Sometime during the first day of his visit, Mark fell on a smaller 15-foot wave and went unnoticed until he was discovered later in the day, floating face down, his broken board still attached to his ankle. The death of Mark Foo, one of their own, humbled big wave surfers and forced them to face their own mortality. Ultimately, Foo’s death was determined a freak accident of big wave surfing, and led Maverick’s to be known as a whole new type of terrifying.

Though there have always been other big wave spots, the discovery of Maverick’s broke Hawaii’s and more specifically Waimea’s stranglehold on big waves. Maverick’s was not only longer, bigger, and gnarlier than Waimea, it was new territory. With the revelation of California’s big wave potential came the possibility for bigger and bigger waves all over the world. The pursuit of bigger and bigger waves continued, this time at a faster pace.

Tow-In Surfing

From the giant redwood logs to the hot curl boards to the gun, innovative ideas were crucial to both riding and catching bigger and bigger waves. Tow-in surfing would step up to be the next innovation that revolutionized big wave possibilities. Although Herbie Fletcher had towed Martin Potter into a wave at Pipeline’s second reef in 1987, the idea failed to be fully realized until 1992, under the big and powerful persona of Laird Hamilton. As a professional surfer, Laird realized that the real thing holding back the evolution of big wave surfing was the ability to catch the waves. Laird and his friends Buzzy Kerbox and Darreck Doerner discovered the answer in the winter of 1992, when they used a 16-foot Zodiac to tow each other into the North Shore’s outer reef breaks. From then on, tow-in surfing began to be fully realized.

Peahi, Maui

Later nicknamed “Jaws,” this wave, breaking off the northern coast of Maui, really established and exposed the true potential of tow-in surfing. As Greg Noll had done when opening up Waimea, the larger-than-life Laird Hamilton led the charge on Peahti to become the face of tow-in surfing. He and his friends traded in their lifeboat Zodiac for jet skis and their big long boards for short faster ones. Because they were getting towed into the waves at such great speeds, they realized they no longer needed the huge long boards to catch the waves. They began to use significantly smaller boards equipped with foot straps to keep them in place, allowing them to not only ride, but actually surf all that Peahi had to offer—waves that consequently turned out to be the biggest ever surfed.

The group of guys who accompanied Laird in the pioneering of Jaws during the early ‘90s, known as “The Strapped Crew” because of the foot straps on their boards, featured Darrick Doerner, Buzzy Kerbox, Dave Kalama, Brett Little, Rush Randle, Mark Angulo, Mike Waltze, Pete Cabrinha, and Brian Keaulana. They worked out a full system of both towing in and picking up riders on jet skis to make it as safe as possible. However, it remains big wave surfing, and scary moments continue to occur frequently.

While Laird and crew still maintain dominance of the spot, it has become the most popular tow-in spot, with people coming from all over the world to surf it. The realizations, innovations, and insane wave riding that came as a result of this attack on Jaws opened up the gates to a whole new era in big wave surfing. With tow-in surfing now established, no wave remained impossible.

Teahupoo

This deadly reef break located on the tip of Tahiti is widely considered one of the world’s most dangerous waves. Where big wave spots like Waimea, Jaws, and Maverick’s all break in deep water, Teahupoo breaks only a few feet above the harsh Tahitian reef. In true big wave fashion, it draws its appeal from its thick and continuous bone-crushing barrels.

Here, in the summer of 2000, Laird Hamilton was towed into what has since been called the heaviest wave ever ridden. Darrick Doerner towed Laird backside into a mountainous left that seemed to completely engulf him before shooting him safely out the back. The front cover story in Surfer Magazine, like the Associated Press shot of Buzzy Trent, George Downing, and Woody Brown riding Makaha, once again changed the world of big wave surfing forever. It blew people’s minds as to what was possible. Laird Hamilton responded to questions about his sanity with statements about his desire to live outside of fear. Perhaps only the history of big wave surfing makes Laird Hamilton’s attitude understandable; big wave surfers are simply a different breed. They have tasted something that apparently leaves them perpetually craving more. And so the search continues.

Cortez Bank

115 miles off the coast of San Diego, this spot was originally located in the late ‘60s by early big wave surfers Walter and Flippy Hoffman, and then again by photographer and editor of Surfing Magazine Larry Moore in 1990. However, it wasn’t until 2001 that big Cortez Bank was actually surfed. In a scheme orchestrated by Larry Moore, six surfers and a camera crew embarked upon what they called “Project Neptune,” with Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach, Kenny Collins, and Peter Mel as the tow-in surfers and Evan Slater and John Walla as paddle surfers. Mike Parsons ended up winning the prize, both literally and figuratively, when he was towed into a wave with an estimated 66-foot face—the biggest wave ever ridden! The ride earned him first place in the Swell XXL Big-Wave Contest and the $60,000 prize.

Following the theme of big wave surfing, Mike Parsons continued the pattern of pushing the sport into the twilight of the unknown and did it again a few years later: in January 2008, he returned with Brad Gerlach, Twiggy Baker, and Greg Long to ride a wave bigger than his $60,000 wave, with a face that measured over 70 feet.

With this, we arrive at the present and discover an entire world full of big waves. With Shipstern Bluff and Cyclops in Australia, Dungeons in South Africa, Belharra in France, and Aileens off the coast of Ireland, the appetite for big waves is being developed and nourished all over the world. The history of big wave surfing is being updated with every surf trip and magazine publication. At the center of it is the same old pattern: surfers who have tasted the thrill and remain hungry for more.