By now, you’re probably aware that a recent session at Cloudbreak that was, to say the least, a little better than average went down recently. Nate Florence was there and managed to bag a wave that will forever live in his memory banks.
“It seemed that basically every surfer in the water managed to scratch into a barrel that was probably the ride of their life,” wrote The Inertia’s Cooper Gegan. “Though Florence is no stranger to epic waves, even he seemed somewhat dumbstruck by just how good it was that day.”
As is the case with most surf trips, there’s generally a day or two that you expect to be a little better than the rest. The swell is peaking and the winds are predicted to be offshore, and those days are the days you expect to really score. But you’re not showing up the day of, not if you’re smart. You’re showing up a few days in advance to get your feet in the wax and familiarize yourself with things. Maybe shake off the jet lag, if you’re surfing a far-flung place. Get the body ready for how much fun you’re about to give it. And Nate, Billy Kemper, and the rest of the people on that particular Taverna trip did just that.
“Two days prior to the incredible swell at outer edge Cloudbreak and the epic ‘inside ledge’ sessions that happened,” Florence wrote on Youtube. “We set off to Fiji funnily enough theorizing what the swell would do. None of us believed it would be quite what it was. Crazy to see how it turned out. Better than we ever thought or could have hoped for!”
When they showed up to that little slice of paradise, they quickly got settled in. Fiji is a place they all know and love, so it likely felt a little like coming home. Nate and Zoard shared a room, Billy Kemper had his own, Benji Brand did too, and Tucker Wooding and the Coffins were still on the way.
“We’ve got a down day or two and then the main swell hits,” Florence said. “Got off the plane and jumped in the water to rinse off.”
The video you see above documents those “down days,” which, at most other places on Earth, would not be considered down days. But knowing now what was to come, that’s an apt way to describe them. Pretty damn fun for a down day, though, isn’t it?
