In Maui | SESSIONS
08/03/2022 - 17:16
Across the seven seas every surfing town has one: a mythical wave that is spoken of more than it is ever sighted. You can live somewhere your whole surfing life and only ever hear of the perfect point that has to be seen to be believed, or the ballistic beach break that only exists for a few hours before sinking into the sand as quickly as it surfaced, not to be seen again for another dozen years.
In Maui that wave is called Freight Trains, and it this story on steroids.
On July 17, a few days after the Code Red Two swell thumped into Teahupo’o in Tahiti, it continued across the South Pacific and turned north, stealing through the tiny gap between the coast of Maui and the uninhabited islet of Kayo-olawe at the exact perfect angle needed to turn the Ma'alaea Harbor into the world’s fastest wave.
So rare is this gem that Maui’s Kai Lenny, rider of the world’s wildest waves, had never surfed it before.
Kai can finally now say he has enjoyed the rarest gold his home island produces after scoring Freight Trains as good as it gets, as this jaw dropping clip demonstrates, with some of Kai’s very own GoPro shots stealing the show.
As you can see from the footage, Kai was far from alone in the lineup.
Everyone from Hawaiian legend Michael Ho to Maui’s four-time Jaws champ Billy Kemper was in the water, alongside a cast of hundreds.
Young gun Eli Hanneman, who was three-years-old the last time the Freight Train came to town, was another standout alongside Ian Walsh, Imaikalani Devault, Makua Rothman and a long list of Hawaiian underground chargers.
Take a bow Sai Smiley, Torrey Meister, Ian Gentil, Mikey O’Shaughnessy, Kona Oliveira, Kevin Sullivan, Mark Anderson, Steve Roberson, Jackson Bunch and Luke Shepardson, just to list those who manhandled Ma'alaea in the director’s cut above.
“I think this goes down as one of the all-time greatest days on Maui, at least in my lifetime,” concludes Kai, after the day of days.
"The waves were all-time, all day long, I can’t believe what just happened."
Marc Chambers filmed the entire thing on land and compiled his footage with water, drone and all other angles of the swell of the century for this Sessions edit.
All aboard!