“I was a little reluctant in finalizing this episode in the beginning,” said Jack Akrop, a humble, soft-spoken surfer from Santa Cruz known for sending it over ledges from Maverick’s to Nazaré. It took a few months for Jack to publicly share his experience on Maui last December during the five-day frenzy at Jaws.
Jack high-tailed it from Ireland when this swell train lit up the charts in the Pacific. As he explained in this behind-the-scenes video, it was full steam ahead across the world, straight into the maw of flexing Jaws. It was his second time surfing there. After dropping into a few backside, a large wall swung his way and Jack swung with it.
What followed was one of the most dramatic-looking wipeouts of the 2024-25 winter, perhaps only trumped by Ty Simpson-Kane’s rapid-fire cartwheels. Hung up in the lip of a growing tower, Jack bailed off his 9’8” and free-fell down the face. Just eyeballing it, the wave looks at least 40 feet, probably bigger. Sometimes, when you push it too hard in the ocean, the ocean pushes right back.
Jack stoically took it on the chin and every inch of his body. As he explained in his video, the fall was an emotional blow as well as a physical. After putting so much effort into getting there and traveling across the world and psyching himself up, things didn’t go as planned. But he was able to put it in perspective and is wiser for it.
“I was pretty distraught for a while,” Jack said. “You spend all this time and energy and build up, flying from Europe to California, a quick turnaround to Hawaii, you just expect yourself to go out there and do super well. So, to have only caught two to three waves and then take the flogging of a lifetime was definitely pretty humbling. But in hindsight, I’m really glad that it happened because I learned so much from that day. And just so much about preparation and the fact that you can’t just rock up to a spot and expect to surf it good. I don’t care who you are. You need to spend some time, get to know the wave and connect with the place. That’s really what I learned from this whole experience.”