Greg Noll, one of the best of the big wave riders, yesterday came uncomfortably close to being a victim of Oahu's surf storm.

Noll and six other big-league surfers were drawn to the challenge of the massive 25-foot waves at Makaha.

About 1:30 pm, Noll chose his challenge which another surfing champ, Fred Hemmings, described as "the biggest wave I’ve ever seen ridden."

But the came to an abrupt and terrifying halt only moments after it began. Noll was “wiped out and there I was straight under the wave and all I could see was a tiny patch of sunlight." Then he was tossed like a toothpick in the turbulent sea.

Hemming held his breath as he looked hard at the churning “soupy” water for several long seconds before Noll's head reappeared. Hemming said: "The wave was too big. Too fast. Too massive. It was definitely a life or death situation. If it had been anyone else to that situation, he would have died."

Hemming said having that sire wave “explode’ as it did on Noll is akin to having a "giant Wall of China falling on you. ”

Noll was carried down in a riptide, then battled swiftly moving currents as he swam a mile diagonally toward shore.

"I'm going home. You guys can take over for another year,” he kidded as he shook hands with Hemmings and then washed off his “busted up” surfboard. Most of the other six surfers who were out in the Makaha surf yesterday came in on smaller waves that rolled between the "big sets."

Charlie Gaiartto's board broke in half. Wally Froiseth and John Kelly were swept off their boards and had to swim back even while they weren't riding the waves. Froiseth, who had chaired the Makaha international surfing contests for many years, described the day's surf as “bumpy “

Other old timer said this was the "nastiest" Makaha has ever been.

One observer said: "She (the ocean) is acting like a wahine with one big mad on. And, brother, you'd better get out of her way."

"STORM WAVE WIPES OUT CHAMP SURFER," HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, DECEMBER 5, 1969

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