ATTENTION ALL CRAY FISHERMAN & ABALONE DIVERS IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN.
If you see a ridiculous wave in the middle of nowhere then let us know about it – We’ve got the right type of idiots to surf it.
This is exactly what happened with a wave 30 clicks off the southern tip of Tassie called Pedra Branca that was surfed for the first time by local boys Marti Paradisis , James/Tyler Holmer-Cross along with our Storm Surfers crew Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll.
The local boys had been told about this wave years ago by fisherman and mentioned it to us at the Oakley big wave awards last year. Then lucky for us our trusty surf forecaster at Swellnet, Ben Matson, spotted the perfect swell and Channel 9’s 60 minutes were keen to do a story on Ross and Tom so we took advantage, called up the local crazy kids and went for it.
We trekked out there on a 90ft Abalone dive vessel with 4 ski’s and 15 surfers/camera crew and deck hands. Along with local ab diver/surfer James Polonouski we reached Pedra in the dark and because the swell was running at a 16 second period it seemed that there wasn’t much going on but as soon as the sun rose it became clear that it was a solid right hander with spitting barrels into a deep channel.
Marti wasted no time and towed straight into a massive slab. We positioned 2 cameras and the photog (Stu Gibson) in Polly’s shark cat right on the shoulder of the wave. Polly ended up having to gas it out of trouble a few times as the wider set rolled through.
So far out to sea, it was amazing to watch everyone grab as many waves as they could over a matter of hours. RCJ knew he was going under the knife in the coming week to fix an ongoing injury and knew he’d be out of the water for a while – So he asked me to drive him into a few when Tom went in.
After 2 waves we decided one more would do it. of course this one was a beast and we put him in too deep and he wore a 25ft lip on the head (see photo). As soon as he hopped on the sled I knew he was in a bad way. It looked as if the skin on his face had loosened off his skull. There was all this room around his eye-sockets and his nose was bleeding.
I always knew Ross was tough but even after that belting he convinced me to tow him into a few more before we called it a day. Later, on the boat he told me it’s the biggest belting he’s ever received – bigger than Jaw’s or anywhere.
Stay tuned to see if the Storm Surfers can turn it into an episode for Discovery
Big thanks to all that helped.
Justin McMillan
