Big Waves Surf Kayaking Costa Rica
I saw this article on the perennial source for kayak surfing information, KayakSurf.net.
All I have to say is, holy crap! I don’t think I would even paddle out if the swell was that big. It really defies the imagination. Alejo must have cajones the size of church bells to drop in on that wave. He appears to be paddling a Mega IC boat, which makes sense if you need serious hull speed to catch the wave. I tried to measure the wave by using my fingers on the computer screen. It looks like it is quadruple overhead to me. Not that it really matters when it gets to be that big.
The massive swell and storm that hit the north shore of Hawaii a week or so go allowed the Eddie Aikau competition to be held for the 8th time in 25 years. This picture illustrates that surf kayaking is clearly reaching the same outer limit as our board surfing bretheren minus the tow in, or has there been tow in surf kayaking?
I would still love to do a Costa Rica surf safari trip, but I might try to find a mellower break than this one.
Respect, for me, also goes to Jonny ‘militia’:
http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=64417#p478404
I have seen him surf bigger, but even on this day, it’s not a clean, glassy face – it’s evil – look at the size of the second pic!!
Darn, it was supposed to read "not as big as on computer screen"
Of course you would ride it!
I heard that on the water the waves are as big as on computer screens 😉