Remembering the Swell of 1969. Biggest Waves Ever?

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Feb 28, 2025 1:05 PM ET

Surfers are notorious for being overly nostalgic, looking back at previous swells, sessions, and single rides through the haze of rose-colored glasses, and always, always believing things to have been better in the past. Hence, of course, the common parlance, “You should’ve been here yesterday!”

Memory can be a fickly beast, with the mind playing tricks, and folks excessively indulging in longing reminiscence. However, when it comes to surfers, many seem to be stuck on one swell in particular, the famed, spoken in hushed tones, Swell of 1969. From Matt Warshaw, and the Encyclopedia of Surfing: “Benchmark big-wave swell, sometimes referred to as the ‘swell of the century,’ producing monstrous waves in Hawaii and the West Coast during the first week of December 1969.”

It was also when Greg "Da Bull" Noll, allegedly, rode the biggest wave of all time on Oahu’s west side at Makaha, then famously quit surfing. Here’s big wave legend Laird Hamilton who, mind you, was a toddler at the time of the Swell of 1969, waxing poetically about the infamous run of surf.

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“There’s never been a winter that big,” says Laird. “Anywhere. Since 1969. That I know of in my lifetime, before or after, I don’t think there’s ever been a swell that big. If you saw the pictures of it, you have never seen anything like that in your life. There were no sets. It was just line after line after line, as far as the eye could see. The entire day. That wasn’t a hurricane; that was a ground swell.”

Valid? What about climate change, and all the data pointing to larger seas as a result? What about the discovery of Nazaré? What about the most recent, potential world records this season alone?

Here’s more from Warshaw:

“The waves were unridable along the North Shore; top Hawaiian surfers Jeff Hakman, Jock Sutherland, and Bill Hamilton were among those who flew to Maui to ride 10- to 15-footers at Honolulu Bay. On the morning of December 4, a small group of surfers including Wally Froiseth, Fred Hemmings, Jim Blears, Randy Rarick, and Rolf Aurness all rode glassy 20- foot-plus waves at Makaha, on the west side of Oahu; later that day, as the largest waves from the second storm began piling ashore, big-wave leatherneck Greg Noll sat out at Makaha by himself and eventually bombed down the face of a 35-footer—still thought of by many as the largest wave ever ridden up to that point.”

Should've been here yesterday...or, rather, in '69.

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

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