He asked me if I was going in, “hell yeah!” now that I had company and someone to follow out – always easier! I found a space , gave Nick a call and told him I’d see him out there as I was following Pete out.
Local Dom Moore (Editor) also spotted my large logo’d van and popped over with some very helpful knowledge and escorted me to the best launch spot. I asked for any pearls apart from not ending up on the rocks and a couple of tips and a quick nervous wee in my suit later I was on my way.
Normally I ride something around 8’0 and 100 litres, but today my bigger 8’6 board was looking a bit small so I’d grabbed an ex-demo 9’6 Naish Hokua out of my van secured my longest, newest, super heavy duty leash on it with two bits of string. Shame in the rush I’d left my impact floatation vest in the van. Would I need it?
Paddling around the corner in the relative calm behind the headland before I saw the Cribbar didn’t take long. However my first glance brought the ‘holy shit’ factor: the wind was offshore and holding up a massive set, it looked massive. Just like looking through the “big wave footage” you got with your Go Pro, standing on the top of the cliff and being stood up at water level are two very different things! The first set that broke looked huge and was breaking waaay out. I started paddling for the horizon knowing I didn’t want to get a set on the head before I got to the break. Maybe I should have gone back for my float vest after all. By the time I finally made it around the outside and into position Pete was already trying to paddle in to some monsters, but on his stubby 8’2 he initially wasn’t having much success. I slowly sneaked further in playing it fairly safe and making sure the bigger sets weren’t going to end up on my head.
