50-foot Wave Conquered by British Surfer
When someone tells you that they’ve conquered Jaws, it usually means that they sat through the full 2 hours 10 minutes of Steven Spielberg’s shark flick without hiding behind a cushion. But for 19-year-old Adam Amin from Devon in England it has a whole different meaning.
Over the weekend of Dec. 6, the amateur surfer joined professionals that were competing in Hawaii’s first ever Pe’ahi Challenge, a surfing competition that took place at Jaws, Maui’s most notorious surf spot.
Despite procuring waves of up to 60 feet in height (over seven times the maximum wave height usually seen in Sidmouth, Amin’s hometown), Amin had no second thoughts.
“It was incredible,” he told Mashable. “To describe it best is to describe a dream I believed growing up that I would never be able to do it [sic], until I suddenly looked in the mirror one day and decided […] that I was either going to die not trying or complete my dream and push myself whether danger or death.”
Having snuck into the event via a jet-ski lift from professional surfer Greg Long, Amin found himself in the middle of Jaws, ready to take on the massive wave.
“I picked Jaws as my dream wave as it is the top end of the world when it comes to the most dangerous waves […] and therefore proving to myself and my heroes that anyone can do it if they are determined.”