Michael Tomson's feature-length article on Sunset Beach ran in the January 1985 issue of Surfing Magazine. This version has been slightly edited.

You see, the thing about Sunset is when you’re looking at it from the beach it often doesn’t look that gnarly. I mean, it looks big, for sure, and you know it’s got to be eight feet to even begin breaking in the bay but it doesn’t look quick like other big wave spots. It doesn’t have that savage top-to-bottom crunch that you can see when you’re sitting on the beach at Pipeline watching the guillotine-like lip mercilessly axing the senseless hordes.

Sunset is different. It breaks a long way out and when sets are in the six- to ten-foot range it can give the impression that this is a highly rippable wave. The peak will sometimes feather for four or five seconds before actually pitching and then there’s this big pause before the inside lines up on the reef. And you find yourself wondering—what’s the problem? Why doesn’t that guy punch it off the bottom and whip it under that lip? Is he slow, or what?

Well, no, he probably isn’t slow. What he’s dealing with out there is something you can’t see from the beach, and that is VOLUME. It’s the thickness and depth which makes a ten-foot wave at Sunset carry almost twice the power of similar-sized waves found elsewhere in the world. And this is one reason why a lot of people consider Sunset Beach to be one of the most difficult waves in the world to ride.

The waves at Sunset come out of the open sea untamed by any continental shelves or other natural obstacles which might serve to slow their momentum. Indeed, when a wave hits the reef here it does so with all the energy it’s accumulated from its long journey across the wide expanse of the North Pacific. In fact, there are probably only two other breaks that possess the same power and scale: one is Pipeline, the other Waimea. The difference of course is that Sunset breaks on nearly any swell during Hawaii’s winter months. If it’s three feet you can hotdog the Point or even surf Val’s Reef. If it’s fifteen feet you can find yourself on a 7'10" taking off on the outside reef. You can ride Sunset on a west, a northwest, a north, and even a rare northeast swell. In fact, Sunset offers more rideable waves in more swell situations and over a bigger size range than any other spot in Hawaii—indeed the world. Without a doubt it is the anchor spot of the North Shore. When surfers in town or on the Mainland call here for a surf check, invariably the question is asked, “How’s Sunset?”

The character of the wave at Sunset is constantly in flux, depending on the swell direction. On a west, the peak stands tall and majestic with more lip-feathering hang-time than you would believe possible for a wave that size. Takeoffs can be hard to negotiate on a big west because of the way the wave moves into the Bay; you often find yourself paddling into the full brunt of the prevailing tradewinds. Pure west swells are also tricky because even though the wave is a right, the wall comes in angling slightly to the left, so your initial bottom turn ends up being a sort of a left-go-right even though you didn’t really want it to be.

The wave changes entirely when the swell is out of the north. You have less of a wind problem to deal with so the takeoffs are more manageable, which is to say they still jack insanely but not as bad as on a west. On a north, there’s a lot more drama on the inside. The inside is a bear, snarling and gurgling as the bottom dredges out and the wall moves thick and uneven across the shelf.

If there is any tuberiding done at Sunset it’s usually done here, on the inside, normally on a big north or northwest swell. And as far as tubes go this one is definitely not for anyone light on nerves or cheap on courage. The inside is vicious, thick, and hair-raisingly unpredictable. The wave never gives you any clear stop-and-go signals. It’s not like a classic tube spot like Backdoor, for instance, where you pretty much know where and when it is going to throw out and it’s just a matter of picking the right line to find the door out the end. At Sunset, it is rare that you know for sure that this baby’s going to give you the luxury of finding a way out—and make no mistake, when you’re back there and the lights go out that’s when you discover the real dimensions of fear.

Anyone who has surfed Sunset for any length of time cannot fail to notice the unbelievably diverse character of this premier Hawaiian break. Depending on the intensity of the swell and its direction, Sunset Beach can be at once mean, demanding, overpowering, frustrating, and yet richly rewarding. It can be down-the-line or peaky or both. And one byproduct of this eclecticism is that it makes choosing the right board for the day a difficult task. Most good surfers in the Islands have boards they know perform well at particular spots; they’ll have a board they know works at the Pipe and another that is suited for Haleiwa or Laniakea. But it is rare that anyone finds an ideal Sunset Board, mainly because Sunset presents so many options. Even a guy like Shaun Tomson, whose experience in Hawaii stretches fourteen seasons, may have as many as five boards he might consider using for Sunset, depending on the conditions.

Sunset is one of those spots that has a unique ability to highlight what’s wrong with your boards. Take out a new 6'10" and after three waves you’ll know as much about that board as you would surfing it for three hours on a similar-sized day at Haleiwa. A board that gets down the face easily and comes off the bottom well when it is windy and the swell is out of the west might feel a lot different when it’s glassy and the swell is out of the north. Sometimes you can go through three boards making subtle changes to each until you find the one. Then two days after you’ve got it, and you’re all stoked, you go out for a session and a giant clean-up set catches you inside and snaps it in half.

Sunset has a way of doing things like that. Just when you think things are going your way—

 Something happens to slow your stride. In particular, clean-up sets are one of this break’s constant hazards. In fact, Sunset holds the dubious distinction of cleaning up more surfers on an average day than any other surf spot in the world. You see, there are no specific take-off points out there—there are only zones. It’s not like on an eight- to ten-foot northwest you paddle out, line up with the green house on the point, then paddle west ten yards straight out and sit. Stick with any misguided rules like that and the odds you’ll have your ass blown out of the water by clean-up set before that session is out. One of the classic traps Sunset Beach plots for its rookies is the miss-the-first-one-and-get-cleaned-up-by-the-second-one syndrome. For some reason the second and third waves in the set always seem to break a little further out than the first, and there is nothing quite like that feeling when you’ve paddled for the first one, missed it, and you turn around to find the biggest gnarliest swine of wave you’ve ever seen and it’s going to break exactly ten yards in front of you. You never know how fast you can paddle until you’ve in that situation. That’s also about the time you start wondering about leashes and whether you like the idea of being attached to your board in the face of this beast of a wave. Everyone gets cleaned up at Sunset—it’s just a matter of time.

The key to riding Sunset well is being able to find the right waves. And a big factor working against you is the ever-present crowd. This is, after all, 

 wave in Hawaii, so it’s not often you'll surf here with less than 20 guys in the water. And if the power of the wave, the clean-up set, and the difficulty in finding the right equipment doesn’t get to you, you can bet the crowds will.

Sunset Beach is a place that penetrates to the very heart of what you're about as a surfer. It is, as many surfers have suggested, the final challenge, the one thing you must do in your career—not because it is the biggest or most dangerous wave; it isn’t—but because as far as challenges go this one is the most complete. In many respects, doing well in Hawaii is measured by your ability to do well at Sunset. It tests all the skills you ever learned as a surfer, from wave knowledge to equipment to stamina to guts to sheer surfing skill; it unzips your soul and spreads your wares out for all to see. And once you’ve been through the experience of surfing the place for a season, far from realizing how far you've come, the place has the effect of showing you just how much you 

 know. But one thing is for sure: When you do get a great wave at Sunset, when all the elements connect and you’re in the spot and your board fires, it’s a feeling you won’t find at any other surf break in the world.

"SUNSET BEACH: THE WORLD'S PREMIER WINTER SURF SPOT," BY MICHAEL TOMSON (1985)

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