Hordes of visitors and residents converged on the North Shore on Monday to watch daring surfers ride towering waves.
Traffic crawled along Kamehameha Highway, primarily around the bend bordering Waimea Bay. Many spectators walked or biked to the beach to catch a glimpse of the spectacle.
“You got to have a bike around here,” said resident Tony Suyetsugu, who rode to Waimea Bay from his home in Sunset Beach.
Scott Palmer of Virginia said watching surfers brave the North Shore waves was on his family’s checklist of things to do during their holiday in Hawaii.
“They’re a pretty intrepid group,” he said, watching some 20 surfers at the break at Waimea Bay.
Just then, three caught a 15- to 18-foot wave.
“Oh, there they go!” Palmer exclaimed as he stood safely behind yellow caution tape that stretched across the beach.
A high surf warning remains in effect on Oahu’s north and west shores until 6 p.m. today.
Wave heights of 20 to 30 feet are predicted along the North Shore and 15 to 18 feet along the Leeward Coast.
Meteorologist Bob Burke of the National Weather Service said surf is forecast to gradually decline to 18 to 28 feet on the North Shore and to 12 to 20 feet on the west shore. Wave heights are forecast to be at an advisory level of 15 to 20 feet Wednesday for north and west shores on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.
Another swell of 10- to 15-foot waves is predicted to arrive Friday or Saturday.
Sunset Beach resident Mercedes Maidana returned home Sunday night from New Jersey, where she and her husband held their wedding reception with family and friends after getting married on Kauai on Dec. 22.
After three weeks without being in the water, Maidana said she had to jump in for a surf session before the year’s end.
“I don’t have to end 2012 with regrets,” said Maidana, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina. “It’s my heart, you know.”
While the high surf was exhilarating for both spectators and big-wave surfers, lifeguards were kept busy throughout the day.
By 4 p.m., North Shore lifeguards had conducted 882 preventive actions — basically warning people to stay away from the dangerous shoreline. A couple of rescues happened later in the afternoon.
On the Leeward Coast, lifeguards conducted nine rescues and took 1,236 preventive actions, according to the city’s Ocean Safety Division.
At Maili Point, an adult and a child became separated from their Jet Ski after they were hit repeatedly by waves about 2:30 p.m., said Jim Howe, ocean safety operations chief. They managed to make it safely to shore, he said.
An adult and two children on another Jet Ski managed to stay away from the waves. Lifeguard crews escorted all five to Waianae Small Boat Harbor.
At about 3:15 p.m., as Ocean Safety rescue personnel were leaving the harbor, they saw a 72-foot, double-deck commercial catamaran get broadsided by a wave about a half-mile off Pokai Bay. There were about 65 people onboard.
The boat was escorted back to the harbor without further incident, Howe said.
About 10 minutes later, lifeguard crews spotted a male tourist who had been swept out to sea from Puka Pants Beach. He was a about quarter-mile off Lahilahi Point.
“He was just out there in the middle of nowhere,” Howe said, adding that the visitor was exhausted, scared and unable to return to shore due to the surf and strong current. “He was happy to see someone come by.”
At about 5 p.m., two men from South Carolina, both 28, got into trouble swimming about 250 yards off Camp Erdman, according to Shayne Enright, spokeswoman for the Emergency Services Department.
Four surfers paddled out to help but the current was too strong.
Ocean Safety personnel on Jet Skis responded and rescued the swimmers, Enright said.
Lifeguards also rescued a surfer in his 30s between Off the Wall and Rockpiles after his leash snapped in the impact zone.
The high surf created a whirlwind for businesses in Haleiwa. Manager Shawn Seale of Cholo’s Homestyle Mexican Restaurant in the North Shore Marketplace said business has increased 25 percent.
“It always helps,” Seale said of the high surf.
