“Full Carnage”: Snapping Soft-Tops at Waimea Bay (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Apr 18, 2025 12:56 PM ET

While Waimea Bay is mostly known as one of the world’s most historically significant big wave surf spots – ushering in the modern era of heavy water wave-riding, a sacred spot in the sphere of extra-large surf, and hosting the iconic Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational – there’s a handful of other, extracurricular aspects to the Bay that make it at times exciting, yet also, quite dangerous.

For instance, there’s the river wave, which when it turns on, can be one of the sketchiest, biggest freshwater standing waves on earth. Then, there’s the infamous Waimea Bay shorebreak. Heaving deep-water swells parade into the Bay, if they’re big enough, they’ll break on the outside before making their way to shore; if not, all that energy will unload on the shallow sandbank close to shore. Success rates are near zero whilst surfing the Waimea shore pound, but that doesn’t stop certain folks from having a go, sending it over the ledge, and copping a beating.

Jamie O’Brien is a usual suspect at Waimea Bay – from the big wave arena, to the river wave, to the shorebreak on the inside. And recently, JOB and his posse took some soft-tops out to thumping Waimea to see how they stacked up against the heavy surf. (Spoiler: they didn’t stand a chance.)

Compared to the industry standard, foam-and-fiberglass fare, soft-tops seem to take a beating much better – making them ideal for scenarios like the Waimea Bay shorebreak. But even then, JOB and crew ended up snapping a couple of softies amidst the powerful pandemonium.

“There were some crazy waves,” JOB laughs, examining the damage to his Mick Fanning Softboard. “I got so pounded. Brah, look how I broke this board. I lost my fin, snapped this thing like down the stringer. The stringer is fully hanging out. If I paddled back out and this thing stabbed me? That’d be so gnarly. I might as well go to Costco and buy a Wavestorm, because all these things are built the same.”

Return of the Wavestorm? TBD.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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