Usually around this time of year, Tim Bonython is pointing himself towards Portugal. He’s a man who lives his life depending on where the biggest waves of the planet are breaking, and Nazaré ain’t a bad place for those kinds of waves. But this year, Bonython did something a little different: he decided to head to Jaws.
“So it’s that time of year when everything kind of changes,” he explained. “In the Southern Hemisphere the winters turn into summer and in the Northern Hemisphere summers turn into winter. “I packed my bags and head traditionally to Nazaré, but suddenly a Japanese typhoon evolved and tracked across the Pacific with swell forecasted to hit Peahi on Maui.”
He canceled his ticket to Portugal — Bonython has his course tracked pretty early after years of exploring — and touched down in Hawaii, instead. As the swell built, it was pretty clear that the forecasts weren’t wrong and Jaws was going to turn into what everyone hopes Jaws will turn into.
“It has a bit of west in it,” said Ridge Lenny just before heading out to the lineup. “Which means that the west bowl will be doing it, hopefully. And it’s super long period, so it’s probably going to be drawing off the reef. Hopefully some nice roll-ins and some tubes.”
Bonython hooked up with some of the best Jaws surfers in the world. With Kai Lenny and that crew involved, Bonython was able to to what he does best: film insanely giant waves ridden by insanely good big wave surfers.
