Casso said...
About half way to the big peak I could see a few prone guys and a couple of standup guys waiting out the back. Then as I got a bit closer one of the standup guys took off and dropped down the face of a massive one. Man, that guy is on a really big board - and man, he's got a nice style. He pulled into this biiiig bottom turn and then was hidden from sight by the mountain of frothing whitewater chasing him down.
I got to the take off zone just as that guy was getting back out there after his wave. It was Tom Carroll (of course) and he was on his new PSH 12' Gun too. We shared greetings and discussed the fact that our equipment was so ideally suited to these waves of consequence. Tom was out there with Matt Grainger (another big wave tow legend) and there was a real buzz in the air. Massive, awesome waves on a sunny Sunday morning.
I knew it was big out there, much bigger than Butterbox, but I was still surprised when the first big set came though. A real, deep water, bombora set.
Unfortunately I happened to be in the perfect position and unfortunately Tom called me onto the biggest one - oh no, I'm going to have to go it. Even though it was much bigger than my level of conscious reasoning could comprehend, I paddled my guts out and got to the top of the lip just as it started to pitch. A weird calmness came across me. I'm not sure if it was the beautiful weather, the smoothness of the double black diamond run ahead of me, the blueness of the water, the fact that a world champion and the heaviest tow chargers in Sydney were watching (and hooting) me in anticipation - but it was surprisingly fun. Usually, I would have just soiled my steamer in that situation. This was the biggest wave I had taken off on in my 30 years of surfing - and I was calm and focussed! I thought some of the drops over at Butterbox earlier were long but this was ridiculous. Very steep and the bottom of the wave looked like it was miles away. This really was a mountain of water that I was riding. A few minutes later, about half way down the face, I gingerly twisted my body to look down the line. I don't think my little adrenaline flooded heart enjoyed the view I was presented with. The wave had walled up to the point of starting to suck and it was feathering a long way down the line from where I was currently standing. Oh crap, this is serious. All my options were evaluated in a split second. I could bail out, dive deep and let that mountain of whitewater behind me, mow me down. I could straighten out and try and outrun it - I am on a 12 footer, but then again this is a triple overhead wave. I decided to go for my third option, draw the line, lock in, think fast thoughts and hope for the best. A bit of pressure on the inside rail and 12-0 Gun redirects, set for the safety route to the shoulder. I'm crouched down, I don't know what the paddle is doing (I don't care about that right now). The board is going fast now, I mean really fast. Really, really fast. It is skimming the ripples coming up the face but holding really steady. I can hear the sound of the whitewater behind me - it is loud, deafeningly loud. There is a beautiful curve to the face - due to its size I can see right from the flat surface in front of the wave, all the way up the face to near the lip. A perfect curve. I could see the curve change shape a number of times indicating the different sections I was racing through. I think there were three major times where, again, I though I wasn't going to make it but just held on anyway. Then, finally, the curve started to straighten out - that only means one thing, I'm through the steepest parts of the wave. Maybe I'll be OK after all! I'm still going at mach speed and straighten up a bit to look around. Yep I've made it, woo hoo. The volume of that thunderous whitewater has subsided and I'm home free. I pull into a big cutback, now that I'm more in my comfort zone and ride out the wave until it dies into the channel.
I paddled back out and tried to remain cool - acting like that type of thing happens to me everyday. Tom, Matt and Goatman all got ones as big as mine and ripped them apart with a lot more confidence than me. I grabbed a slightly smaller one as I wasn't sure if my heart could handle another shot of adrenaline like that.
Well written
Angie
.....change is scary until you accept it.
