The Peak of the Swell
As the tide started to drop for the afternoon the swell cleaned up a notch and I went through this dark place of wanting to be everywhere all at the same time. With the lay of the land and many spots requiring some walking to get to – it can take an hour or more to check different places. It was a strange kind of FOMO that was doing my head in. Not everywhere was working – some popular spots never broke properly with the swell angle clocking around the compass so quickly.
I decided to pop in to check one spot I was sure would have something decent and I was right. But I didn’t count on the swell actually improving during the evening.
This particular righthander had broken for pretty much the whole day and through the tides. The morning group of surfers were calling it 6-10 foot … and I met one solo surfer who met me on the track in with eyes wild with astonishment as he described 15-footers breaking across the reef. He was scurrying away to a less intense spot and I didn’t blame him at all.
By the afternoon the wave was more like 5-8 foot, but as round as it was high at times. Davy Wooffindin and Nick Smart had been towing it all day along with Joe Dirt and James Cross, Dave Wild and Mike Dorking, Richard O’Keefe and James Streetley, and Kyle Davidson and Gordy. Five tow teams were at times too much out there, but the waves just never stopped coming.
I heard a story that at one point Joe had missed a tow into a wave, but didn’t let that stop him paddling his 6’1″ board down the face of the very next monster set wave and somehow managing to catch the thing. He wasn’t even sure he was going to chase this swell and then his instincts kick in and he blows everyone’s mind.
The tail end of the session saw some incredible waves going down. Davy and Davo found some great lines through the sometimes warping walls that didn’t always run nicely. Joe was chasing the bigger ones and got scuttled early into one. I thought he’d wash up on to the rock I was perched on after wearing a two-storey high wall of water on his neck. He eventually popped up way down the point thanks to the rapid-filled river that would flush through the inside with each set.
That meant there was no chance to swim out there with the camera and the slabbing nature of the peak made me think any paddling in would be impossible.
Just as that thought went through my mind Will Fraser turned up (he often appears on the big days and paddles into some of the best waves). Sure enough he stroked into one of the bigger sets and the tow teams let him have it. He got swept up the face as he paddled hard down it – I thought he was a goner. But no, cool as can be, he popped to his feet and free-fell a very long way without even once questioning the ability for his tippy toes to bring the drop under control. He compressed and set his rail and whipped around an impossible section to ride the wave to the end. It was the best wave I had witnessed being ridden all day.
For his efforts Davy gave him a ride back to the takeoff zone.
Eventually just Richard O’Keefe and James Streetley remained in the lineup. They traded barrels and found a couple of impressive rides when another paddler arrived from the beach around the corner. Two others had tired to paddle out through the keyhole on the west side only to be washed in way down the beach.
Felix Dickson is no stranger to waves of consequence and immediately went to town a few hefty paddle in waves. Somehow he and Will were managing to paddle back against the torrent … at least a few times. It was probably the lesser evil compared with having to run a kilometre down the beach to try to punch out through the beachbreak.
