What was it like out there? Maalaea with Eli Hanneman
Well, in case you didn’t get the memo, check your phone, get remotely near the ocean or talk to any members of society this week: There’s been waves. Lots of ‘em. The South Pacific got incredibly riled up and lit up most of the Pacific Ocean this past week. It woke up ancient sleepy fickle waves, it maxed out Teahupo’o, and it turned every summertime classic from Town to Wedge to Lowers to Malibu on full blast.
One of the waves that lit up (as I’m sure you’ve seen by now) was Maui’s speed demon Maalaea — often referred to as “the fastest wave in the world.”
Maalaea had been relatively dormant since 1995 when Mike Stewart did a pit stop as he chased a south swell from Tahiti, to Maui, to CA to Alaska, riding waves at each spot. It rumbled again in 2005, but this swell of 2022 might be the best it’s been in this lifetime.
A whole new crew of Maui Boys added to the folklore book on Maalaea this week and we caught up with Eli Hanneman, Maui’s fastest rising star to hear a bit more about what it was like out there.
by Maui Marc Chambers
Brandon Guilmette: What was it like out there? Was that the first time you surfed out at Maalaea?
Eli Hanneman: The last time there was a decent size swell I was really young — like 6 or 7. So it was kind of like surfing a new wave for me. I never really surf there much — never when it was that big.
So that was the best it’s been in 20 years right?
Yeah. The old guys were saying it’s been like 50 years since they've even seen it close to that size. So that says a lot, but I've kind of been a doubter [of the wave] my whole life to be honest. It's so fickle I was convinced it wasn’t even a real thing. Before the swell I went and looked up videos of it and I was like, “Okay, let's see what it looks like.” I think it was a 2005 swell and it was big, but it still wasn't even close to 10-foot.
“ I saw Mike Ho out there and I asked him, ‘How would you compare this to any other time you surfed it?’ He’s like, ‘This is pretty much the best it gets right here. Like I don’t think I’ve surfed it this good.’””
How big was it the other day?
The first day it started off like 5 or 6-foot in the morning then throughout the day it was building. By the end of the day, it was eight to 10 feet and just nonstop waves. It was crazy. And then the second day, the morning was still like eight feet and then it just kind of kept getting slower and slower, but at one point it was like eight to 10 feet and just like rifling over and over again. It was crazy.
It looked like there was just nonstop waves pouring in — like every wave was perfect.
It was like a proper eight to 10 feet too. Wasn't like eight to 10 feet, like fun summer South swell. It was like eight to 10 foot, top to bottom square barrels, like on shallow reef. There's times where you fall and you're like, “Wow, I might get hurt right now. Just getting smoked and it's shallow and its right next to the harbor so it's kind of sketchy. Like you don't really know what's on the bottom, so it’s a pretty dangerous wave actually.
Photo: Kalani Minihan
What was the heaviest thing you saw out there?
The heaviest thing that I saw was probably being in the barrel behind someone that was burning me and then seeing another guy dropping in front of him while I was inside the wave [laughing]. If I was with a GoPro that would've been the craziest clip. I posted a little clip of it on my Instagram, but, like, I was behind a guy who was burning me and there was someone going over the falls into the barrel in front of him. I I'll never forget that view. It was like in Surf’s Up when the guy falls over in front of him [laughs]. That's what it looked like. I thought I was gonna die, but I survived. So I guess that's good [laughs].
“I was behind a guy who was burning me and there was someone going over the falls into the barrel in front of him. I I’ll never forget that view. ”
How many times do you think you got burned?
The first day I got super lucky. I think it was more mellow cuz it was kind of just the the Maui boys, and then guys from other islands started to come and the tensions raised. The second day was just a blood bath. I got burned on like every wave and I was so mad the second day, came in and I was like, “I’m so over it. I'm not going back out.” I just got roasted on every wave. I got one fun one, but yeah, I was just getting like burned down the line, burned off the takeoff. You name it, it was happening to me. Guys were running each other over. It was bad. Full blowout.
The wave looks so perfect on video. Could you imagine a better wave?
It's hard to, it feels weird to say it, but I was telling people it’s gotta be one of the best waves in the world — just the potential it holds. I think it could have [held] even bigger. I don't know if it's possible for it to get any bigger than it was, but if it could get like 10 to 15 feet, I think it would still hold. The best comparison I could make is it’s like Slater's wave pool, but like a 10-foot version over shallow reef. It’s crazy. I've never seen anything like it. Yeah. It looked, looked like Nias, but longer.
Yeah. It's crazy.
And Maui is called the Valley Isle cause it has these two big mountains with a big valley in the middle and the wave is directly in that valley. So it's just a wind tunnel through the valley that just blows a billion miles an hour offshore all day, even when it's flat. I think this weekend we had especially high winds so it just made it that much more offshore.
Were there any waves that closed out or was it pretty much peeling every time?
There were waves that were probably unmakeable from the top because they were so fast, but there was never a point where it closes out. It just reels. But sometimes it's too fast, but like there's not like another separate peak down the line sometimes or ways split up. It's just a reeling offshore barrel all the way across…it's psycho.
Who do you think got the best wave that you saw or even that you heard of?
I saw Kai Lenny get a crazy one on the second day. Um, he was getting a bunch of good waves. I saw Tory get one the first day on in the evening that was like a solid, like 10 footer. That was probably the biggest wave that someone got. And then Ian Walsh got a couple crazy ones too. Um, but, but overall I think Kai was the man. He was kind of getting all the good ones.
Kai Lenny by Peter King
“There were waves that were probably unmakeable from the top because they were so fast, but there was never a point where it closes out. It just reels.”
Had Ian [Walsh] surfed it before?
I talked to Ian, he said he surfed it on the 2005 swell, but he was pretty young. I don't think he has a ton to compare to because he was like not really old enough to surf it properly. He said he was just fearing the whole time. So, um, it's hard for them to say, cause they were young. I saw Mike Ho out there and I asked him, “How would you compare this to any other time you surfed it?” He's like, “This is pretty much the best it gets right here. Like I don't think I've surfed it this good.” He's like the OG of all OGs so that’s pretty cool.
