Windsurfing and Cloudbreak. Two words you don’t often think of when you visualize the famous Fijian wave. It’s more like “code red” or even fantastic Championship Tour contests of old where surf heroes would get fantastically barreled (see Owen Wright). It’s a thing of beauty and I, for one, am happy that Cloudbreak is back on tour.
The thing is, Fiji, and Cloudbreak, has long been a favorite of those that prefer to use wind power in the ocean to windsurf, kite, or foil. And while windsurfers can’t exactly get barreled, they can make some pretty spicy turns in spicy conditions and pull off some fairly radical lip-line maneuvers.
Last year, at the Fiji Surf Pro, a windsurfing contest, those maneuvers were on full display. As was some crazy carnage. A couple of windsurfers got absolutely obliterated in the barrel while their masts go through the rinse cycle with them. It looks terrifying from here. Hard to imagine getting spanked with all that gear at big, windy Cloudbreak.
The first competitor rides the lip for what seems like ages before landing the floater and getting what the play-by-play man calls, “a massacre” as he and his gear go up and over the falls. The second rider gets closed out on, and the third rider in the heat bails when the wave goes square. This all while the competitors in front of him are caught on the inside.
“Cloudbreak is definitely owning this situation here,” says the announcer. And as we all know, regardless of what you’re riding, the ocean always owns the day.
For the record, France’s Baptiste Cloarec won the event. The 2024 Fiji windsurfing contest is in September.
