Remember when you’d pal around with buddies on the weekend, shooting hoops or chucking the football, dreaming about taking to the court or field in the big game? Well, this is that to the extreme, and the likes of the Christensen and Walsh brothers, Ben Wilkinson, Mark Healey, Albee Layer, and Billy Kemper are already in the “big game.” In fact, at Pe’ahi, it might be more appropriate to call it the huge game. And these kids have thrown off the practice jerseys by not towing in, but saying “f*ck it” and paddling the massive wave.
While Kohl is surely not condoning the crowding of lineups, he sees the positives in being surrounded by the best: “I always thought of Jaws as this huge, windy, terrifying, tow wave. There were a lot of people out surfing that day. But the truth is, that is the only way our sport is going to progress. When you throw that many talented surfers into the water together, all of them pushing the limits, you’re going to see stuff that has never been done before.”
