LUCKY SIX
By 4.15 there were now six guys out on the water, Thomas, Timo, Lecky, Aleix, Graham and Cederic Bordes and the sets were starting to become much more consistent. Most of the waves are what the locals would call ‘small’ Jaws but still over mast and a half with a perfect channel. From the top of the cliff it was easy to spot the bigger sets looming up on the horizon and around every 30 mins there would be the occasional rogue bigger swell which not only had a solid peak but also connected through to the infamous west bowl. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that everybody would stay as safe as possible and not go for any ridiculous moves. But minutes after that thought, Lecky took off on the wrong side of the peak on one of the medium sets and the next minute I see him straighten and then go down engulfed in the white water. Without a ski to haul him out he was on his own and I was relived to spot him five minutes later swimming for the inside clinging on to what was left of his sail. By 5pm with just over an hour daylight left, a proper grinding set marched its way through the line-up. Tommy T was on the first wave of the set while Timo, Cederic and Graham were stacked up ready to take their turns accordingly. As per his ridiculous approach to sailing any sized waves, Thomas was stupidly deep and screamed into a bottom turn right in front of a treble mast high roaring section. Aleix charged through on the next wave on the conveyor belt and once again came straight down the face in front of an avalanche of heavy white water. Next up was Timo, I am not sure if he was aware this one had a chunkier west bowl looming in front of him. As he took his line towards the channel the wave just started wrapping towards him and barrelling behind him. It kind of reminded me of a famous moment back in the day when Josh Angulo caught a similar wave, took off his hand and stared straight back into the pit. From the looks of things, Timo’s priorities were more set on making it out to the channel and luckily he survived the wave unscathed and I am sure he was probably hollering out loud after that ride. The set was not over, Cederic the GA slalom racer was on the last wave and came charging down the line almost oblivious to his surroundings. I know Cederic has been sailing big waves with Thomas through the winter so maybe the thought of riding Jaws was not fazing him. But this wave was probably the biggest and meanest of all with a beautiful clean face and hollow end section. With Thomas jealously watching from the channel, Cederic took his wave bravely and made it out to safety unscathed.