I could tell they weren't far away by the volume of the hoots and screams of excitement in the pre-dawn gloom. Winding their way up the road the hoots began coinciding with the glimpses through the trees. The low light of early morning wasn't enough to obscure the commotion taking place in the ocean far below. The red ute, towing a black jet ski pulls into the lookout park.
Wave after wave lurches in towards the reef before buckling as if in slow motion and exploding left and right. The left is a detonation as fierce and wide as it is tall. The right is a raw wall warping as it peels.
"That's big," laughs Doug Young, letting out a hoot as he watches another set feather across the next bay. "I've never seen it do that before," he grins with a wild look in his eyes.
The swell is forecast to peak early this morning at 6.7m and a period of 18-seconds. That's like the codeword for all the region's best big wave surfers to descend into the Catlins. Brad Roberts and Nick Smart are already on their way out – they hit the water before the sun had come up. Doug and his crew aren't far behind. Then the paddlers have turned up to tackle the giant. Tom Bracegirdle and his mate Lewellyn are eyeing every set and wondering where they'll sit in the lineup. Brad and Nick pull into view on their jet ski and suddenly the whole arena gains some semblance scale to it all. It's huge.
Even with the assist from the jet ski, surfing these walls is a mind-bending feat in spatial awareness. For Tom, paddling into one is a lesson in patience and nerves. He dodges some giant sets and looks helpless in a take-off zone spanning a football field. He manages to spin and stroke into a few wild rides. Lew isn't so lucky. He paddles off the beach and the safety ski misses him – that's easy to do – the whitewater is a labyrinth of two storey washthroughs and a paddling surfer is hard to spot. Lew is washed down the coast, across one rocky outcrop and then into a survival paddle as he is forced to duckdive inconceivably large walls of water right against the cliff face. If he gets it wrong the cliff face will tear him to shreds. It destroys his board ... his only lifeline. Eventually he gets spat out.
"Physically, I am okay," Lew tells me with dilated eyes. "Mentally, I am not so sure."
Lew is a competent big wave surfer and would have been in his element out the back, but that paddle is almost impossible in these conditions. Lew swaps his board for another and strolls down the paddock for another go.
Somewhere on the coast Doug is searching for his tow board after losing it in a horrendous wipeout. In between the chaos, some huge waves are ridden. Everyone is accounted for by nightfall and laughing as they recall the day's events. Below us the peak continues its spectacular display in the last rays of light.
If you thought this winter swell swarm was over think again: here's the report for this week.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS I seem to keep running into New Zealand falcons lately. While scouring the cliffs at Papatowai this week I nearly stumbled right on one. He seemed to be checking out the waves as well. These truly are spectacular birds of prey, check him out below.
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