At 2.30pm myself and video cameraman Manu, were in the boat both feeling kind of anxious at what we were about to let ourselves in for. Manu had even brought fins with him just in case the boat would flip which was not exactly reassuring! Looking back at the shore I waved goodbye to Suzanne wondering if I would make it back in to catch our transfer to the airport in less than 3 hours. The sensible decision was to wait for tomorrow when One Eye would most likely be mast high and perfect but for me there was ‘no tomorrow’, it was ‘now or never’ and I was totally committed to this adventure. On the beach, Klaas was rigged and headed out whilst Victor had chosen wisely to not risk his title race and opted to sail on the inside reef instead. Five minutes later we were blasting full speed between the swells at the entrance to the channel. From the beach Suzanne had watched us disappear between the huge waves and was seriously concerned that the boat had no chance to make it through the mountains of white water. Luckily the boat driver was incredibly skilled and knew exactly how to navigate through the closed out reef pass. We had one or two moments where I just held my breath as we inched over mast high breaking waves, but all of a sudden we were out into open water and heading around towards One Eye. Now for the next mission, to somehow be in the right place at the right time to shoot Klaas and Uli riding one of these monsters. Out in the line up, the volume and length of the swells were like nothing I have experienced before. Some of the lumps were twenty metres thick and about two hundred metres long as they pulsed through the water towards the reef. By this time Uli was out on her own since the Russian guy had reportedly been crushed by a double mast high close out!
Upwind we were keeping an eye that Klaas would make it out since, the wind looked pretty light as he headed through the channel. Finally we spotted his sail emerge from the chaos and I heaved a sigh of relief that we would not have to head back and attempt some kind of crazy rescue mission. Joining us for the session was Airton, easy to spot with his Red Bull endorsed North kite. I heard he is one of the craziest guys in hollow big waves and this ex kite wave world champion certainly did not disappoint. Over now to Klaas and Uli for their recollections of this crazy session, trading mast to double mast high barrelling bombs outside the safety zone of the Le Morne lagoon.