Part 2 of the series “Remote desert slab” was filmed at an isolated location along the southern coastline of Australia mid winter.
This was a pretty memorable one for me for reasons other than the act of riding waves. A few years prior to this session whilst surfing Luna park I was driven into the reef knee first which resulted in me shattering my patella (knee cap). After a long recovery I decided to pursue other hobbies for a few years which led to chasing big waves being put on the backburner. Jethro and I had been talking about chasing this wave for a little while but were also keen to just head to the area to do some four wheel driving and camping and if we scored the wave great but if not we were keen to just go on a trip and surf some fun waves.
We set aside a one month window months in advance in the hopes that the wave would come to life during our time along that particular coastline. Leading up to our window we were constantly checking the charts, crossing our fingers, toes and hoping for the best. A few days prior to our window it became obvious… In a few days time it was going to be FUCKING PUMPING! Before we knew it we were on the road for the 2 day drive across the country. Finally, after 25 hours of driving we arrived at our destination well after dark and set up camp in the dunes and turned in for an early night in anticipation for the swell the following day that we had driven all this way for.
I woke up 2 hours before sunrise and struggled to get back to sleep as the nerves/excitement levels were pretty high. It was a wave I’d never surfed before, I knew nothing about the place other than the fact that it was heavy, dangerous, shallow and located in shark infested waters! To be honest I hadn’t surfed anything anywhere near this calibre of slab since my injury all those years before and began having doubts as to whether or not I was capable of riding this stuff anymore as it had been so long. I couldn’t help but wonder if due to me not really surfing much anymore if I was going to end up like Nick Ormerod and end up being driven out of the area on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance!
Before we knew it we had driven the car up to the headland where you could see the wave a few hundred meters or so in the distance, that is of course when the sun is up. It was still an hour or so before daylight and well and truly still a night time sky. Funnily enough it was a full moon, due to the moonlight the surface of the ocean was illuminated and you could see headlands kilometers off in the distance. It was a pretty incredible sight. This meant that you could vaguely see the wave, not very well but when a set would come in you could just see the thing barrelling down the line, wrapping in and exploding on the shallowest part of the reef. Combine that with the sound of the lip detonating on the surface of the water and reverberating its way up the cliff and thundering throughout the bay it was obvious... WE WERE ON!
Before we knew it we were suiting up at the base of the cliffs accompanied by 3 other crews from Victoria, Coffs Harbour and Portugal. What followed was pretty much and all time session (for me anyway), it wasn’t the biggest day out there but it was definitely big enough to be doing its thing. Before I knew it I was scooping into some pits and my uncertainty about my injury holding me back was out the window, it was just as they say “like riding a bicycle”.
Filmed by: Ricardo Pinesi, Jethro James, Tim Bonython
Cover photo: Ben Jackson