You know that feeling you get when a huge set shows up in the distance? There are a few seconds while you’re scratching desperately for the horizon where you think you might make it. You’re likely trying to balance the angle of your paddle for that fine line between straight towards the incoming wave and a little bit towards the shoulder, but then you realize that you’re just not going to make it, no matter what you do.
Then there’s the split second decision to make between ditching and duck diving, depending on the size of the wave. If you’re lucky, you’ll make it under. If you’re not, you’ll have that heart-in-your-throat feeling when the lip grabs you and yanks you up and backwards. You’re weightless for just enough time to suck in the largest breath you can… and then, you’re falling. In Hawaii, waves can jump in size in a matter of minutes, so it happens a little more frequently than many other places. It’s a feeling Ben Gravy knows well.
It was in the 10 to 15-foot range — pretty freaking big for the average surfer — and Gravy made no bones about his feelings. “We’re not going to beat around the bush this morning,” he said. “The boys are scared.”
But scared or not, Ben and his friend Will Boothby came to Hawaii with the intention of surfing bigger waves than they’re used to. So they loaded up the guns and went hunting at the big wave Mecca that is Waimea Bay. And while it wasn’t as big as Waimea can get, it was plenty big enough to bring the heart rate up.
“Today was awesome!” Gravy wrote on YouTube. “I got to introduce Will to some plus size waves and I almost got myself into quite a pickle with the nightmare duck diving scenario that almost played out as I was inches from getting sucked over the falls on the biggest wave of the day. There’s not a ton of footage of it happening, but you can see how sketchy it got for a second! Even so, we got some super fun waves & got to charge a tiny bit!”
