:35:05
So I decided to go around
Ka'ena Point and look at Makaha...
:35:09
...because that would be
the last spot...
:35:12
...that would still have
some chance of holding up.
:35:16
Noll set off west to Makaha...
:35:18
... the birthplace of modern
big-wave surfing...
:35:21
... thinking the huge swells
slamming into the North Shore...
:35:24
... would be tempered...
:35:25
... as they wrapped around
the island's far western bend.
:35:30
On the drive west, he stopped briefly
at Ka'ena Point to snap this picture...
:35:34
... which Surfer Magazine
later claimed...
:35:36
... was the largest wave
ever photographed.
:35:42
When we got to Makaha,
the cops were going around...
:35:45
...with blare horns on their cars
telling people to evacuate...
:35:49
...the homes on the point.
:35:51
Makaha was the only big-wave break
on Oahu considered ridable...
:35:56
... as Noll and a handful of daring
surfers attempted the huge swells.
:36:02
As the morning progressed...
:36:04
... the hundred-year swell
surging out of the North Pacific...
:36:07
... was giving rise
to bigger and bigger waves.
:36:11
Finally, everybody was out
of the water. I was the only one left.
:36:15
And I was having a real hard time
trying to gear myself for this thing.
:36:20
Because I knew that basically
it was a situation...
:36:23
...where your chances of surviving one
of these waves was about fifty-fifty.
:36:27
And I'm thinking to myself:
:36:29
"Is it worth giving up the farm
for a stupid wave?"
:36:32
I finally had to just paddle
outside the lineup a hundred yards...
:36:38
...and sit on my board
with my head down...
:36:40
...and kind of go into another gear.
:36:44
And the final decision was that
I would never have forgiven myself...
:36:48
...if I had allowed
this day to go by...
:36:51
...without at least trying for a wave.
:36:55
Noll turned and paddled...
:36:56
... for what was then considered
the biggest wave ever attempted.