A big ‘Break’

One look at photos of Don Shearer flying his nimble yellow helicopter above five-story-high waves at Jaws this week and you know why he’s emotionally wiped out.

Each wave rumbled toward him like an avalanche at sea as Shearer, with a $600,000 camera mounted on his helicopter, dropped low for a crew shooting a new version of the 1991 movie "Point Break."

The 55-year-old pilot, who has spent countless hours hovering above surfers at the famed Maui break, flew his MD 500-D about five feet off the ocean and about 15 feet from the approaching waves.

And sometimes he was behind a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter that was part of the scene, low to the water like Shearer, who is vice president and co-owner of Windward Aviation.

Flying that close to the Huey, flown by Tom Hauptman of Pacific Helicopters, was dicey: Its long, wide blades can create enough turbulence to flip Shearer’s ride upside down, he said.

"It’s absolutely stressful," said Shearer, who has flown into volcanoes. "You have this mountain of water moving at you at 30 mph, and maybe it’s 50 to 70 feet high. And then you have the salt spray that is almost equal to the height of the wave."

To get the shot in that situation required Shearer, who has more than 22,000 hours of helicopter flight time, to approach at low power and then, at the last moment, throttle up to get over the wave, he said.

"Hollywood wants me as close as I can get," he said.

But "Point Break" almost didn’t come to Maui.

A team of expert forecasters had been tracking swells for the film since October — in Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain and Hawaii, according to David Valdes, one of the producers of the film. They wanted a break that would double for Cortes Bank, where waves break in the middle of the ocean 100 miles west of San Diego.

Late Jan. 17 they decided to come to Hawaii. Sunday morning the team felt the forecast wasn’t reliable enough, and called the whole thing off. On Monday morning it was back on. They had to scramble, he said.

"We were lucky," Valdes said. "The world knows that Jaws is home to classic, epic, big-wave surfing even though it really hasn’t been that predictable or reliable over the last four to five years."

Not much is known about the "Point Break" remake or how closely it will mirror the 1991 action thriller that starred Keanu Reeves as undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah and the late Patrick Swayze as the surfing bank robber Bodhi.

Valdes called it a reboot of the original, not a sequel or a prequel.

"The backdrop is extreme sports, and surfing was integral to the first one and will be integral to this one," he said.

Ericson Core, cinematographer of "The Fast and The Furious," will direct the film from Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. No cast members have been signed, but principal filming will start in June, said Valdes, who would not comment further.

Maui County officials had been holding their breath on the project since December, when the "Point Break" producers secured permits to shoot at the legendary break off Peahi in Haiku, said Tracy Bennett, the county’s film commissioner.

"When this swell came up, they literally put their production together in two days," he said. "I think they hit the lottery big. The size and scope of this swell and the way the script plays out, I don’t think they could have found anything better."

The whole production, which shot Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, was strictly for four stunt surfers, Bennett said. A large contingent of water safety personnel was also out, along with five or six other surfers not tied to the movie — tow-in surfing icon Laird Hamilton among them.

"There was a stunt they performed that’s kind of the end of the movie, a big stunt with a helicopter flying over the waves, and it was really insane," said Bennett, who watched the action from the cliffs at Peahi. "It’s one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, and I have been in the movie business for 18 years."

Shearer said it was definitely memorable. But two days was enough for him.

"We have winds and salt spray, and sometimes I was orchestrating with the Huey, changing frequencies on the radio with one hand and flying the helicopter," he said. "The workload on a pilot is absolutely ridiculous. When I came in at the end of the day, I said we’re not charging enough."