The Super Session
Felix later came to where I was shooting and the look on his face was incredible – like that of a man living his best day ever. There was a good reason for that. Felix went on to tell me how him, Todd Robertson, Neil McQueen, Leroy and James Rust had stumbled across a bank that was taking a direct hit from the swell. The bank usually does not exist but after a summer of small easterly swells and winds it had grown into something significant.
When Felix turned up Toddy was coming in holding two halves of his 6’10”. Luckily he had a 7’0″ back-up. They paddled out and surfed perfect 8-10 foot plus barreling rights until Toddy snapped his second board and Felix broke his leg rope.
“I got the wave of my life out there,” Felix tells me, with his wild eyes concurring with his story. “It was so perfect and … I still can’t quite believe it.”
Felix, who had walked paddled a few km along the coast to where In was started to make the trek back. I later heard he decided to go back out at the fickle bank, which was still working right into dark.
“I couldn’t resist it,” he told me afterwards. “It might not ever break like that again.”
A few days later I spoke with the quiet, unassuming hell man, Toddy Robertson. He pioneered many of the big wave spots around Otago and has surfed throughout the world chasing big waves. He described the session they had as “the best waves of my life”.
“I still can’t get my feet back on the ground,” Toddy admitted a few days after the swell had passed. “They were hands down the best waves I have been amongst in my life. I’ve surfed all around the world – pumping Mexico and that was even better. It was a whole other level.”
He admitted it wasn’t for everyone with the super fast take-offs and heavy, heavy fast sections.
The last time Leroy had seen a swell of this size he was a kid.
“I remember being a young teenager and my dad took me to this spot and it was about three times overhead and way too big for me then,” he recalls. “I will never forget watching my dad swooping down these giant walls. It was graceful and scary at the same time.’
Leroy, who surfed it this time with his brother James, reckoned that was at least 20 years ago.
