"SLAYING THE 80 FOOT GIANT"

The Honolulu Advertiser November 2, 1998 "Slaying the Giant" Surfers wonders what future holds after North Shore's biggest wave.
It's a legend now. Surfers call it "Big Wednesday." The day last winter when Ken Bradshaw took on the biggest wave ever ridden on
the North Shore. People watching from the hillsides of Pupukea say it was at least 45 feet, with a face 80 feet high. Stack one
telephone pole on top of another, and Bradshaw's wave still was taller. Bradshaw's surfing partner Dan Moore held up his arm and
opened his hand. Imagine the face of the wave running all the way from the tips of his fingers to his elbow, Moore said. Than he
pointed to a tiny spot below his wrist. "And there's Ken," Moore said. "It was like he was a cartoon." In the weeks that followed
January 28, the wave that Bradshaw had been waiting for all his life somehow left him empty. "I was complacent; I had lost some
fire," said Bradshaw, who is built like a middle linebacker but has a soft, sweet voice. "It was like, 'How can you get that high
again? How can you feel good again?' " As the North Shore gets ready for another winter, Bradshaw isn't sure what comes next.

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