WS – How big were the sets on the day you sailed it and how much bigger do you think the wave can hold?
AM – The last wave I got was the biggest wave I’ve caught. Looking at the photos it is probably about a 10m face. Double mast high and a bit. I’ve ridden double mast high stuff before but nothing that throws anywhere near that hard. The first section at Pedra is pretty much a cold water, mirrored Teahupo’o. It is quite amazing seeing that sort of energy exploding like a bomb. You just do not want to end up under that thing – it could just snap you like a twig. If you did go down on a big wave in that first section, you are 100% definitely going to get hurt best case scenario.
I think the waves could get twice the size of what we had at least. It wasn’t an especially big swell that was producing waves in the 10m range. It would be scary to imagine how big and heavy it is with an actual 10m swell.
WS – How intimidating was it being out on the ocean with that rock and the massive hollow waves?
AM – Sailing out there in the middle of the ocean was a great experience. It is a reality check about how insignificant you are in overall the scheme of things. Being scared is only natural but I think it brings you this strange sense of focus. Capitalising on your fear is good, it stops you making stupid mistakes by
being indecisive.
WS – What were the high and low points of the mission?
AM – There were so many low points – nothing went to plan! I’m amazed that it actually ended up pulling itself together at the last minute. There were two standout highlights for me, one was kicking off the biggest wave right at the end and the second one was when I fell on my second wave. I got bucked off by some backwash as I was racing to catch the wave and got tangled in the lip. I ate it and thought I was gone for, luckily I slipped out through the back of the wave. There was another monster right behind it, so I had to swim wide into the pocket of the wave as it rolled through. The adrenalin was absolutely firing as the ski came to rescue me. I was just laughing on this weird high, that feeling got me psyched to go score some bombs.