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Jaws

Maui, Hawaii is home to the world's biggest wave, called Jaws. This legendary wave can be 70 feet height and comes to the North Shore of Maui a dozen times a year. Jaws has also a hawaiian name - locals call it Peahi. Its incredible power and radical, bone crushing form kept the crowds light and the action intense as the world's most accomplished windsurfers challenged by its gigantic tubes.

The phenomen of Jaws can be explained by the unique shape of underwater ridge here. The height and the form of a wave depend on the sea depth and the shape of the sea bottom. Near the North Shore of Maui there is a large underwater ridge, located about 30 feet beneath the ocean's surface.

As part of a storm swell passes over the ridge crest, it slows down because water travels slower in shallow water, scientists explain. Other parts of the swell travel faster in deeper water, causing the wave to focus on the ridge-a process called refraction. The reef squeezes the wave "inward and upward" to form a "peaking wave." So the monster wave Laws arises and breaks at Maui's Hookipa beach.

First attempted by board surfers in the 1970's, Jaws remained virtually unridden until windsurfing's elite began riding it in the 1980's.

Derrick Doerner, a towsurfer pioneer, said about the Jaws: "It's the biggest, baddest and most perfect wave in the world with the most insane corner pocket inside bowl one could ever experience or even imagine. When and if you do make it to Peahi, position yourself in the channel, watch and go about it in a very careful way.

When you go down and you will, it will be the most devastating experience of your life. Or, if you're in the channel having second thoughts, witnessing someone else go down, this will be the second most hair raising experience you will ever witness in your life"...