I have wanted to see big waves in person for as long as I can remember, so living only 40 minutes from one of the most famous big wave surf spots in the world is exciting. Jaws is located on Maui’s North Shore near the town of Haiku and when it’s going off (thanks to big storms in Alaska sending waves all the way down to Hawaii) the entire island knows about it pretty quickly. Jaws only goes off (surfer term for good waves) 5 or 6 times a year so it’s a pretty big deal.

Luckily Darlene and I had the afternoon off and had our friend Michael to guide us. Getting to Jaws involves driving down a dirt “road” through wild fields of tall grasses and past burned out shells of cars, placed there to discourage visitors and block access to smaller cars. Most people walk the long dirty road but Michael told us those in-the-know drive there. We are now officially in-the-know. Driving was not easy and there are a few areas where it felt entirely possible that our car was going to flip over but walking is way worse.

Once we got there we planted ourselves in a lesser-known area accessible by hiking through the woods. We got there right at the peak of the big waves and it was quite a sight to see. The waves were topping out around 30-35 feet and it’s almost impossible to capture their size on film. Watching these monsters with your own eyes is a totally different experience. Just imagine a wall of water 35 feet right behind you right now, it’s crazy. And that’s only half the potential size of Jaws.

On the way home we walked across a cow pasture to view some more big North Shore waves. These were sloppy, un-surfable waves but we were able to get very close thanks to a peninsula jutting out right into the breaking waves. Once again, the photos don’t do these waves justice, without a reference point they just sort of look like your average waves.

We ended the day in Paia, eating delicious mahi burgers at the Paia Fish Market and drinking a couple beers at Charley’s. It was the kind of day I used to daydream about before moving here.