CASTLES, CANOES AND A CODE RED SWELL
“But those visions are still ingrained in my head right now ...The vision of these big, massive walls that line up and look like they go all the way to Waik ī k ī. ”
whipped water into Clemens’ face. “I pretty much got blinded. It’s like tak- ing o on the biggest wave of your life with a blindfold on. Now add a canoe and a couple other people and oh boy. My paddlers were my eyes. And they said ‘go for it. Go, go, go!’ “Well, we pretty much sent it and I got us down to what I thought was the bottom and then I realized I was still only halfway down.” They made it down to the trough of the wave as it began closing out. He and his paddlers bailed. The canoe hit him on the inside of his leg as it passed. “It didn’t feel bad at the time,” Clemens continued, “but the next day I could barely work. It was black and blue.” When they swam back to the boat, they discovered it filled with water, the bailer buckets ripped out, and the back ‘iako hanging on by a thread. They managed to paddle it out of the impact zone. A jetski arrived to tow them to shore and he recalls, “These big sets were coming through and closing out, people’s boards were breaking and leashes were snapping and people were screaming and whis- tling for [the jetski]. It was intense.” As Clemens was going in, Austin, just hours o the plane, and two other paddlers in his boat headed out. The first time he canoe surfed, he was 15, and Hemmings had taken him out to Castles. Austin remembers jumping
Four of Honolulu's most skilled watermen set out to ride some of—if not the—biggest waves they've ever ridden on in a canoe, while ocean safety looks on, ready to assist as needed.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022 | AMA 23
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