NOW OR NEVER
Professional surf photographer John Carter is also getting on the boat and I realize they are about to go to Cloudbreak right now. I can’t believe my luck. If I was any later I wouldn’t have met them. I start looking around for something for them to sign. This is awesome. My heroes are right in front of me. I wonder if they wouldn’t mind signing my sailboard even though it’s a different brand to their sponsors. This is all running through my head when I hear the words pop out of my mouth. “Any chance I could come on the boat with you guys?” I can’t believe I asked! They were super nice about it and totally hooked me up.
I was on cloud nine! I was back at the boat within 8-minutes. I timed it. My wife also timed it. She was left with whining kids and no lunch … it is suffice to say I will not be receiving the “Father of the Year Award” for 2013. Episode One: Cloudbreak 4-6 foot with a good 25-30 knots cross off, which was awesome. I was more than a little overpowered, but in the end managed just fine on my 5.3 rigged as flat as she’d go and got some awesome wave sailing with my idols.
You couldn’t wipe the grin off my face! To add to the euphoria, about 20 minutes into the session Jason Polakow turned up amped and ready to get amongst it! I’m looking around – there I am windsurfing with 3 world champions. It was unbelievable conditions on a world-class break and I’m ‘living the dream’. We managed to get around 3-4 hours on the water and I was treated to a display of some of the biggest hacks off the top and best wave riding I’d ever seen. Not to mention Koester roosting a few big forwards and back loops. Everyone was tearing the place apart.
Scott McKercher’s cutback is phenomenal and JP’s ability to project off-the-lip is on another level altogether. I definitely got schooled on wave riding. It was a real Master Class in performance riding in-the-pocket, but I still managed to get a heap of waves and the experience of a lifetime. The really cool thing was my sailing was improving all the time. After the session was over and the light was fading we packed up and headed back to Plantation Island. On the trip home we all talked about tomorrow, which was when the real swell was arriving and Scotty and Philip start to suggest that it could be 15 foot. They invited me to come along again. I knew then that I was going to be out of my league, but I thought it might be good just to go and watch anyway. Episode Two: The next morning I got up and got my gear and my camera ready.
Really I only intended to watch and take photos. I headed out to the boat to meet up with the boys. They were frothing at the bit to get out there so we loaded the boat and off we went. It was a much lighter, probably around 15 knots, which turned out to be a good thing as the wave was cleaner and the potential for me to sail looked promising. About half way out to Cloudbreak we could see the white water and the tube. A huge eye in the wave, staring at us, challenging us. It was big, bigger than I’d expected.
The boys were getting super keen and I was getting super nervous. It was pumping. The wind was light and the waves were around the 8-10 foot mark. There were a few surfers out including John John Florence and Taj Burrow, who were getting some sick tubes in preparation for the Volcom Pro the following week. We watched for about an hour. I’d already thought that swell was big, but then within 20 minutes it jacked up further and it was huge. As it rose and the tide came up, the big west bowl started to break and the largest sets were just cleaning all the surfers up. It was gnarly. There was the typical cheering from the crowd in boats, but also a lot of guys going over-the-falls. Broken boards, sliced-up bodies. The jet skis were busy cleaning up the mess. It was like a war zone. Definitely no place for an amateur sailboarder! My punter status suddenly became very apparent to me.