SUP: After the day, what sort of reaction did you get?
Nick: Well I couldn’t really believe that…in the old days, someone might have got a picture and you might have been able to show it to a few of your mates. Nowadays, you get a picture on Magic Seaweed and 11,000 people look at it within two days.
SUP: Alright, and now talk us through that wipeout.
Nick: When I took that initial wipeout, I was paddling out, and I saw that first set. I don’t really think that I paddled in that much, I had this idea that I was going to go out to a nice safe zone, study it, and then paddle in to where I was going to get a wave. I paddled in a bit but not that much and saw that set come and I just thought ‘I ain’t gonna get round that’. I didn’t have time to shit myself, I just paddled into it as hard as I could, I knew I needed as much speed as possible.
It was pitching at the top, so I hit it as fast as I possibly could – and I’ve got a bit of a technique here – when the nose of the board hits the bottom of the wave, you superman dive off the front and you throw yourself into the bottom of the wave and breast stroke down for your life. You can get quite deep like that, and you think you’re alright, and then you get the pull from the board and you don’t know whether you’ll get pulled backwards or snap the leash. I didn’t snap the leash but I took two more on the head after that. You’re massively affected by the turbulence, you really get dragged. You’re swimming as hard as you can because every inch gained takes you away from those rocks.
SUP: Given that the ride is short and the risk is great, why do it?
Nick: I’ve always wanted to surf it, it’s one of the challenges surfing around Cornwall. I didn’t really study it, how can you really? I watched a couple of videos of people tow surfing it, but really just watched it as I was getting ready to go out. I got some encouragement off the locals; they were definitely egging me on, especially Geoff Tydeman (the photographer). He was showing his camera and saying he would definitely get some shots, and that there were plenty of people with mobile phones in case it went wrong.
I’m not being funny, but you’ve been surfing for a while and you ask yourself, ‘am I man enough to go and do it?’ There are places that could be more technical and a lot more hardcore, but there’s just something about it.
