I watched in vain as Timo desperately tried to pump his sail and get some speed to outrun the impending doom; the infamous Aloha Classic where ‘Rich Myers gets eaten’ sprung to mind. The wave reared up into a thick cavern behind his shoulder and picked him up into its curl. Time seemed to stand still as I waited for the inevitable, wishing it wouldn’t come. Situations like these, there’s no play book for, it’s second by second judgement calls where experience and sometimes luck all play their part. The wave had now fully engulfed Timo and I readied myself to help him in the channel, but just as quickly as he had disappeared, the wave spat him out! It looked like one of those cheesy Hollywood scenes where the hero emerges miraculously from near death but there was no CGI or special effects here. Timo had never come out of the straps or let go of the boom when the wave had picked him up, it was so big and pitching that as it broke Timo picked up the gust from the wave breaking just as its bottom dropped out, meaning he air-dropped clear of the all engulfing lip with just enough speed to make it out into the flats from where he pumped as hard as he could to escape the whitewater as it nipped at his clew all the while. It was one of the greatest near misses I’d ever seen and the look on his face as he joined me in the channel soon after said it all – “Did that just really happen!”. Timo was buzzing, but we both knew it was no time for celebration or complacency as incredibly another huge set loomed, looking like it would close out the bay. We squeaked over the side of it, our masts dwarfed by the troughs as thick walls of water exploded behind us.
