Shown is a detail from the cover of " Jaws Maui,"
which captures the beauty of the legendary surf site.
Jaws Maui - the book - consumes
By Greg Ambrose
the reader with powerful images of
the ocean's force and wave riders'
daredevil courage
Star-BulletinTHE word jaws evokes an immediate visceral response, along with horrific images of crocodiles, lions, grizzly bears and sharks about to dine on some hapless fellow creature. For a select group of surfers and sailboarders, the same word creates similarly dramatic responses that run an incongruous gamut from fear to fun, freedom to control, and pain to exhilaration.
Jaws Maui, By Charlie and Leslie Lyon; color photography by Patrick McFeeley (Jaws Maui, Ltd.); 227 pages; $39.95. Available at surf and sailboard shops
Jaws has become synonymous with Pe'ahi on Maui, a distant reef that each winter causes gargantuan waves to break.
Pe'ahi means "beckon," and that's what the waves off this Hana Highway valley did, until Maui residents Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, David Kalama, Mike Waltze and a select group of others finally heeded the call.
Four years ago they launched themselves into the fearsome waves on sailboards. Later, they had jet skis tow them into the waves on surfboards, overcoming the impossibility of paddling over the ledge against a river of saltwater rushing up the face of such massive moving mountains when the swells steepen and break.
That bold stroke of inspired insanity took surfing into the oft-contemplated unridden realm of nightmarishly large waves.
They dubbed the spot Jaws in homage to its implacable ferocity, and the best sailboarders and surfers from around the world have taken up the challenge to ride Jaws without being devoured.
Maui photographer Patrick McFeeley has stalked Jaws since it was first ridden. Shooting from nearby cliffs for a lofty vantage, or in a helicopter to put him nearly in the lap of the riders and yet above the image-clouding wave spray, McFeeley has gathered an impressive collection of images.
"When you look through the lens, it's like being right in it. You have a tremendous fear of what can happen to the riders, even from land," McFeeley says.
"We all respect this as the most dangerous wave we have ever been around. The biggest fear is someone will go out there and get killed. Ironically, as a photographer, the wipeouts add to the drama."
For four splendid years the Maui boys have guarded Jaws like jealous lovers, sharing their magic place only with those wave riders they are certain can survive the wave's immense power.
It was a wrenching decision to let the book "Jaws Maui" reveal to the world the intimate details of their love affair with the spot, but they felt a greater good could be served.
"I have traveled all my life, and everywhere I have been back to hasn't been as nice as the last day I left," says McFeeley.
"No place is getting better. We have made a piece of history of Maui's beauty with this book, so that people can feel how things are, and realize how things have changed.
"I hope that people look at this years from now and realize that we are losing it here, and are inspired to save it. Because once the land and ocean are gone, we have nothing."
In words both mystical and common-sensical that strive to explain the allure of such a seemingly suicidal undertaking, and photos that immediately startle and intrigue viewers, the book is a celebration. It honors the rugged pioneers who have taken surfing to the next level, to ride waves that others previously were content merely to watch in awe.
Each rider is drawn to these waves for different reasons, but the ride itself makes them feel alive in a way that most people will never experience.
The local riders are well-respected sailboarders, surfers, jet-ski pilots, lifeguards, water men one and all who have spent countless hours developing their skills to a level necessary to challenge Jaws with a reasonable expectation of surviving.
Eye-popping photos are contrasted by the riders' insightful quotes that show they aren't supermen, despite the fact that what they are doing would drown 99.9 percent of the planet's population.
Their simple eloquence reveals that they are just talented individuals doing something they love.
The book is opulent in its use of stunning, double spread images of iron men riding waves both beautiful and brutish in their capacity to maim. Each photo is worth meditating over to glean the details of wind-carved wave texture and the physics of massive amounts of moving water, and the drama of man and machine in motion on the verge of annihilation.
The size of the waves borders on cartoonish at times, such as when the white scar of Laird Hamilton's wake stretches vertically above his head, leaving readers to desperately calculate how big the wave must be.
But the most astounding action photos can become numbing and lose their emotional impact, even when the action is varied by including jet skis, sailboards, bodyboards and surfboards in various combinations on the waves.
In a poetic move, layout artist Charlie Lyon has heightened the effect of the ocean action by contrasting it with panoramic shots of the island of Maui. Readers are invited to pause, to reflect on the interaction of ocean and land that shapes topography both physical and emotional.
To provide a further refreshing visual rest, Lyon has inset tiny photos of exotic island flowers to gently remind readers that they can miss life's lovely little details by focusing only on the grand dramatic scenes.
Lest anyone think "Jaws Maui" is merely a colorful paean to a seemingly mad but certainly talented group of daredevil athletes, the authors put everything in perspective throughout, and especially at the end.
Using the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hawai'iloa as a metaphor for our fragile, self-contained planet, and pointing out that riding the waves at Jaws takes total commitment and aloha from all participants, the authors and surfers assert that the most important thing in life is our family and friendships, and how we treat each other.
