Over the last week the world’s best big wave surfers scrambled their way to Fiji after the biggest forecasted swell since the history making 2012 Thundercloud swell motored it’s way north through the Pacific toward Tavarua.
Those in attendance included Kohl Chistensen, Reef Macintosh, the Rothman brothers, Nathan Florence, Reef Macintosh, Kai Lenny, Garrett McNamara, Laurie Towner, Anthony Walsh, Dane and Tanner Gudauskas, Kelly Slater and Ramon Navarro to name a few.
Each day leading into the swell Cloudbreak has been firing, gradually building until the swell reached its mind-blowing crescendo yesterday.
Dawn saw dark and stormy weather. There was plenty of thunder but no lightning to be seen, the noise instead coming from the bombs detonating on the Cloudbreak reef.
The rest is history and the edits will come in waves over the next week. However, there were some history making moments, including Ramon Navarro, who may have ridden the biggest wave ever surfed at Cloudbreak.
You may remember during the 2012 swell, when that one rogue bomb roared it’s way through the lineup. The iconic image of Mark Healey’s board caught in the lip imprinted in the minds of all who witnessed it.
Ramon and tow partner Kohl Cristensen remembered it well, and made it their mission to sit and wait for that one freakish wave to roll through. It eventually came and Ramon whipped into surfing history.
Kelly Slater blew off Keramas to be there, perhaps regret of the fact he spent the last swell commentating rather than surfing had been silently eating away at him all these years, and nothing was gonna stop him from getting a slice this time around.
Below we’ve got the first official edit of the day from Mysurf.tv and filmer Owen Milne, plus all the social media highlights.
