TOP 5 MOST DANGEROUS WAVES IN THE WORLD PT. 1 

Koa - To hear your expert POV/opinion on these 5 waves is sincerely invaluable! Further emphasizes the notion of paddle fitness and breath hold survival. Love these educational videos that expresses your personality! Well done!

On small days I been practicing for long hold-downs by not immediately taking a breath after surfacing, but waiting till the next wave washes over me, so a simulated 2-wave hold-down. Thanks for this video!😊

Your descriptions on what's underneath these waves while watching was heart thumping,thank you.

Went to pipe once on vacation on an average winter day, maybe 8-10ft (californian) and got a couple of short barrels was feeling good. About to catch a wave in as the crowd was picking up and it must've been that backwash because I was vaulted, last thing I saw was everything upsidown as I did a frontflip in the barrel. Did about 3 cartwheels instantly and then just pinned on the bottom water rushing downwards for like 3 seconds. Came up, went to shore and vomited out of my eyeballs. Never surfed pipe since.

Such a detailed, eloquent description of Pipe. I had no idea. Gives me even more admiration for the likes of Michael Ho and others who have mastered the place.

Thank you, Koa…a lot of good information about those breaks. I’m fascinated by how many factors there are in determining the danger of an area and how they all can combine differently on different days and sizes and swell direction and sea life, bottom contour and makeup, and you nailed the experience of rough waters and nicely broke down the experience of surfing tough breaks near shallow reefs and rocks, which for me was mostly my local breaks East O’ahu breaks like Chinawalls, but when also on days we had a car, Pipes especially and Makaha are some faves (partly because of the fun of the backwash), but you did a really nice job of the detail about Pipes, and that current, and the lineup…astounding. So that analysis, the only one I really know of your 5, was right on, which gives me great confidence about your other 4, which is a fascinating gift for me with my deep love of oceanography in general, so thanks so much for that. A really nice breakdown. Mahalo fo’ dat.

love these vids!! can you do each one seperately with more of your footage and knowledge? thanks super valuable knowledge and breakdown

I don't know if Nazaré is the 1st or 5th most dangerous wave in the world, because it doesn't have sharks, but I'm sure it's by far the biggest and fastest wave in the world.

Great list and video! Would have love to hear your take on Shipsterns

Awesome one Koa - love to hear your expertise about these world class big waves 🎉

great vid Koa thanks for sharing your knowledge

Go to the sw of western Australia and surf the Right on a 6m swell and north wind. Hands down up there with the most heaviest wave in the world. Even if there was a major city on the coast with hospitals etc it is still so dangerous with its size and force, shallow reef, sharks. For those that don't know, the Right is extremely isolated and if something went wrong you would be air lifted to Royal Perth hospital some hours away.

Great video!! Would love to see your top 10 funnest waves you've surfed and why

Cool videos mate, like the day by day vlog and this one about your faves waves

Love this vlogs information thanks Koa. Excellent job

Outstanding! Love it. Well spoken. Great description from someone who knows. Tnx

The picture behind your head of you surfing is amazing...crazy huge wave Koa!!

Great vid, did you ever check out Cyclops in South Australia? That place for me looks like the most dangerous wave due to how remote and heavy/shark invested that ocean is.

Thanks, enjoyed the video and your expertise

Great video. I would like to hear your opinion of Puerto. That wave, on a huge day, is freighting.

Definitely love the informational videos 👏 then again, always stoked when there’s a new vlog

Awesome breakdown Koa! Thanks for taking the time to rank the waves. Those of us who have tried to bodysurf the country (Log Cabins), learn very fast about the currents and deadly reefs. So dangerous...back to Sandy's!

Great job Koa!! Your list is an excellent one. Very well thought out and hard to argue with your choices! By all means it would be great to see more episodes like this one. I’m all for it 100%!!! Please do more of this type of awesome subject matter.

Thank you for the list and the reasons for your choices. Two notable exclusions: The Right and ShipSterns.

Great video! Your experienced analysis makes this truly watching. Hope you can do some more like it.

Great analysis Koa! Love your channel, keep up the great work!!

Nice video! you should check out el Gringo in Arica Chile ... pretty gnarly wave as well

really good video. appreciate you sharing your insight

Great discussion, thanks for sharing,keep them coming, maybe you can do the same per region, that way you can cover Puerto Escondido and others in Aus.

Super interesting! Thanks Koa

Great video, need more of this

Thanks for the great content brah

Great job Koa tuff choices well done 🤙🏼

Great video, good to see your perspective…!!!

Excelent vídeo koa ... from Argentina 👍👍

Loved this video Koa having someone that can speak on experience with these insane waves gives us a perspective you can’t see from a photo/videos 💯

Thanks. I'm an old San Diego surfer,but I've not surfed since the 1960s. Still love watching and I'm amazed at what is done today.

Well done! I was lucky to grow up with Mavs in my backyard, very heavy, and lots of things to deal with as you mention. Great job on the vid!

Well done, man! Thanks for sharing!

That was a great summarisation of reasons Koa & yourself having personal experiences at each wave provides an awesome appraisal of risk 🤙

Awesome Koa! Really enjoyed the video and would love to hear more about the other waves you mentioned at the end of the video - maybe part 2 next week?

Long time fan and subscriber here, and long time Celsius drinker(thanks to you!)..My fave flavor is Lemon Lime and Passion Fruit Mango. This video was so interesting, and I couldn't imagine the massiveness or danger of these waves. WOW!!!!! Awesome video!

Yes keep these kind coming , appreciate... I think there could easily be other super dangerous waves, especially those that have shallow reefs and cause the waves to fold over each other where the only rideable section is a 6ft part at the bottom of the wave and with 15 to 20 feet of water above you creating another 2 waves, footage from those breaks can be next level surprising that people survive those wipe outs. But yeah really appreciate your take on these 5 spots, it's very interesting for surfers like us who will never ride any of them 😂 Bless

Like the new location. Even more I liked the first 7 seconds of the video hitting play/pause/play/pause 😂. Always entertaining and a pleasure to ride along. Thanks, and be well.

Love this style video! So great, getting the insight of what it's like to surf these waves from someone who is indeed surfing them.

Most information I've ever heard about those waves, thanks, john

Your videos are great.. full of interesting content insights . .. thanks and keep safe!

Great video , appreciate you bruh

Nice video mate, especially with your experience!

Great video - thank you.

Great job bro and I love these videos!🤙

Great video Koa.. not an easy thing to do they’re all frightening waves with serious consequences. I lived on the North Shore 1970 for a few years when I got there in January, a big swell, tore up most of the houses. They were just starting to build the first hotel Del Webbs hotel. I recall nobody wanted it pipe and those days was also the same scary place at that time Lopez made it look like an easy ride. Unbelievable where guys like you have taken surfing. Blessings

Loved this video. I hope you make more videos like this. Maybe a top 5 most deadly shorebreaks

This is fire 💥 thoroughly enjoyed it ❤ Ohana 👊🏽😎🤙🏽

Incredibly well explained from expert personal experience. This video is hard to fault !!

loved it great to hear your view bra

Cool video bud🤙Puerto Escondido is also pretty gnarly huh? 🌊

Great video mate! What about Shipsterns bluff here in Tasmania? That's a grinder.

Cool vid bro. Gracias

Keep these kinds videos coming. Cool to see you make these type of videos as you are the man. Remember seeing the video of riding xxxl Tahiti at like 16🤯

Admire your courage and athleticism….but you guys are absolutely nuts! I have been dribbled across the bottom and slammed dunked by small waves. I can’t even imagine what you’re doing out there. The first time I watched big wave surfing I thought it was the most amazingly terrifying sport possible. The only immediate comparison I can think of is those skiers who helicopter up to those vertical chutes in Alaska and ride the avalanches down. It’s hard to watch sometimes. Love your channel and laugh a lot when you and Nathan do your You Tube channel!

Great video Koa

Great video!!!

Thanks for sharing. All those waves so intense! 🫣

I really enjoyed your video

Great episode.

I like it Koa.. great video, so is filming while surfing in the water. Lineup Politics pecking order ect. all great content.

Great video Koa. I'm not a surfer and the ocean scares me. And yeah you're qualified to judge these places having surfed them. You, and surfers like you are very brave people imho. Stay safe Sir.

Instant like...nice work

Cool video. Great to hear how Pipe compares to other places in the world. Sad what's happened there over the decades too with crowds etc. And yeah, as a teenager I washed up at Backdoor after going over the falls. I was very lucky that day. I like how you point out it's more than just the size of the wave that makes it dangerous. If you don't get KO'd, and can swim, you can survive a lot, or not. Full respect for the waves you've surfed.

nice vdi very relaxing. should of added shipstern bluff in Tasmania

Great vid! Cheers

Great video. Im surprised the wave in portugal by that lighthouse that attracts the crowds isnt in here.

Love these style of vids

Brah I’m proud for you Keep doing what you do! Some peeps can’t handle the mellow

I wouldn't mind watching more content like this. It is cool to hear your opinion considering you've surfed all these places

Thanks man. Great video.

Cool one Koa thanks

Really interesting, especially with the detail on the bottom contours, shape of the reef and currents. I must admit I was a bit surprised at #1. I thought it would be Tahiti. I could easily rename this as ‘5 waves I am never ever going to surf!’

One of my favourite videos from you, Koa. Love your content, Brah. Longtime subscriber here. Chopes (Teahupo'o) would be my #1, because the water is so shallow and the reef is so alive and coral-ridden. You wipe out there you are falling out razor blades. Mavs is #2 because the water is always so damn cold and the waves are so unpredictable and steep. Oh and plus the paddle outs are do damn looooooooooooong. Pipe is further up on my list, I think but the greatest Tahitian surfers have died there as well which I attribute to just bad luck and not the dangerousness of the wave or break. And no, the reef you fall on at Pipe is not as gnarly as Chopes reef. As for backwash? You got Waimea and Makaha for that, Dude.

Love the video! Can you do the opposite? a video on some good waves for beginners?

Would love u to do a top 5 of your best ride's and talk through your POV 😊

Great video Koa . But how is Puerto Escondido Zicatela not a top 5 ?

Good job bra. Make some more. Stay safe. Aloha.😎🤙

... nice breakdown Koa .. worth my sub at least mate.

You know what your sponsers would love i reckon, top 5 best boards, wetsuits etc for specific waves and water conditions

How would you compare these to some of the nutty Australian waves like The Right, Shipsterns, etc.? Just curious to hear your perspective on those ones, as I'm just an armchair surfer :D (My wife used to surf a lot (from Hawaii) but I grew up in Seattle, so not really the greatest surf spot. :) Oh, and very nice video!

I grew up surfing in Hermosa/Manhattan South Bay CA and your breakdown of the waves was really interesting...here is my breakdown of surf in the southbay-summer FLAT LOL. Winter macking close outs...LOL. Aloha brah.

Great list, when I was a Grom, it was just Waimea, Todos Santos, outer reefs, (I’ve never surfed them just bought every magazine) then later Mavericks, now so many new XXL wave spots, really wild.

Love to see that Puerto was close to making the list, especially with a big swell on the horizon!

Well done. A most humble and talented young man. World class talent and big wave maestro.

For those who are unaware I'm going to explain nazaree in a way that Koa either chose not to or maybe just simply is unaware of. Nazaree is unique because of a offshore deep water canyon that not only comes to a pinch point near off the cliff but it also significantly rises in elevation to get incredibly shallow comparative to its offshore depths of well over a thousand feet. This causes those deep water ocean swells in the North Atlantic to increase in speed significantly and up to between 60 to 85 miles an hour at times. But there's also one other part to it. Because of this canyon it's splits the swell in two and then focuses it right back together right off the cliff which causes that massive wedge effect that we see at Nazareth and in places like Newport Beach and California at the wedge. Nazaree is not only dangerous because of its size which it can produce wave faces upwards of around 110 to 115 ft at times But again as Koa mentioned the cliffs which are razor sharp with Jagged rocks as well as underwater caverns. He also touched on the inside currents. Because of the size and speed of the wave in the colliding currents from different angles This creates a condition which is unique to nearly every other place on Earth because it creates a massive inside zone of an oxygenated water column that is anywhere between four to 8 ft deep at times and spreads over the course of a 10 to 15 acre wide window. This makes it impossible for people to be able to swim to the surface because it completely upsets your typical degree of buoyancy in the ocean and as Koa touched on a bit It makes it incredibly difficult for jet skis to properly function. That is why I kind of disagree with Koa's assessment on placing it at number 5. That is entirely dependent upon the conditions. Nazaree on a relatively above average big day would register somewhere between 5 and 10 on the most dangerous waves on Earth scale. But when Nazarees at its max well that a whole other other Beast which no wave on Earth compares to and it's not even close.

Good choices. You really can’t disagree. Very interesting vid

We need a top 20 :) ... Indo, Australia (box etc)... or hardest shore breaks (Ocean Beach CA? etc.)

Great vid. Im sure many have their own scary experiences. My scariest was a 3 wave hold down at cronulla pt 20ft. I had to push my ribs to get my lungs going when i finally came up. I had a reef suck dry on take off 1 time at 10ft but fortunately made the drop

Thanks Koa, very interesting. I can say that I have not, nor would I ever surf any of these waves.

Love this content

0.20..love that picture in the background...what a shot

It is awesome to hear it from you an experience veteran! Respect ✊

KOA: I’m learning how to surf thank you for the advice keep up the great work