There’s been a good couple of swells at Cloudbreak already this year, and judging by the predictions of several leading surf forecasting sites, the best one yet might be on its way.
UK forecaster Magicseaweed recently posted an alert for a solid Cloudbreak swell, along with an image of the sizable low pressure system that will start tracking past Tasmania and heading up towards Fiji in the next few days. While the forecast outlines that there is still some uncertainty around the weather system’s predicted trajectory, it also states ‘the forecast is increasingly confident in a significant swell. Some numbers are bigger than the 2011/12 swells.’
Bigger than the 2011/12 swells? Far out, let’s hope so.
Considering the historic sessions that went down during those mammoth swells, including a day so big that the Volcom Pro was called off and the world’s best big-wave surfers joined some of the tour’s best for an absolute barrel orgy, we could be in for something pretty special.
Then again, anyone who’s ever been on the receiving end knows that even the most promising of forecasts can sometimes fail to materialise and leave you well and truly skunked.
Still, Magicseaweed aren’t the only ones predicting big waves for Fiji, with Coastalwatch chief forecaster Ben Macartney also honing in on the same long period groundswell, stating in his Australasian forecast that ‘the bulk of swell will hit at slightly lower periods on Monday, that’s up around seventeen to twenty seconds, and that’ll produce really huge surf at breaks like Cloudbreak and really good conditions.’
Cloudbreak, like Teahupoo and Jaws, is one of those waves that is watched pretty closely by the type of gents who have a habit of turning up at the biggest and best swells, so it’ll be interesting to see who shows up for this one.
Mitch Crews recently scored the pumping lefthander on the back of a hot tip from Slater (which you can view here), telling Tracks afterwards, ‘It’s got to be up there for one of my favourite waves. I can’t even believe the tubes you get on that wave!’
Soli Bailey also made his first pilgrimage to that part of the South Pacific, and judging by the clip he just released, it won’t be his last. ‘It’s such an amazing wave,’ he told us. ‘It’s super fast and really hard to make the sections on your backhand, but I can see how it’s one of the best waves in the world.’
fiji fieldtrip from Kaius Potter on Vimeo.
And while the swells those guys scored were both amazing in their own right, neither of them had the predicted grunt of this latest blob on the map.
So what’s going to happen come Monday on that famed stretch of reef? And where’s Kelly?
No one knows at this point, but Tracks is hoping the stars align and we get to see the King in his element, or at the least a preview of what we’re in store for when the WSL rolls into town in early June.
And for those who don’t have the moolah or motivation to fly over to Tavarua, don’t fret. It looks like Vicco and the East Coast are in for a pretty good weekend of waves, too.
