There’s a lot of claiming going on in the world today. Biggest cliff ever jumped on skis. Largest wave ever surfed. Most hot dogs eaten in one sitting (Joey Chestnut, 76, a record I can get behind).
Well, recently, a couple of fellas from Hawaii rode some rather large surf at Ho’okipa on Maui and made the following claim: “Biggest Wave Ever Surfed on a Two-Man Kayak.” Yeah, that’s quite the claim. Tongue in cheek of course. Cause who in their right mind would big-wave surf in a two-man sit-on-top kayak? There’s enough volume in those things to be downright dangerous in any type of closeout section. Terrifying comes to mind.
Well, Kelson Lau and Reef Toscano, both experienced Maui watermen, decided, for some unknown reason, to take out a double kayak to brave a decent swell at a wave better known for kiting and see if they could make it to the bottom of a monster. “We’re about to paddle this thing out at bombing Ho’okipa ,” says Kelson, un-ironically pinching a joint in his right hand. “We may get smoked, we might not, either way it’ll be super fun (or) super funny.”
Well, things got real, really quick as the boys figure out just how tough it is to paddle a large kayak through large walls of whitewater. The kayak gets stood up in a stern stall and one of the paddlers gets thrown from the craft. They also dumped out in the lineup somewhere but were able to get things together and set up for at least one big ride you can see above.
As for being the biggest, or a record? I doubt either of these guys really cares. Someone in the YouTube comments section left this nugget for the team. “So, that was pretty large, and cool as shit. But a couple of guys on a heavy right in Bali have you beat. And they are not one-and-done. I’ve seen them take off on triple-plus overhead. And surf a session..They since have retired from that insanity.” We need to see video evidence. Oh yeah, king of novelty surf, Ben Gravy also gave the boys props: “That was amazing,” he wrote.
