If you follow surfing vlogs, it’s likely you saw Nate Florence’s latest episode from Fiji. He headed there, of course, to surf Cloudbreak, and the swell he was eyeing up when he booked his flights certainly paid off. It was a day full of insane waves, but one stood out among the rest.
The day, as surf days in Fiji often do, started early. “Four-thirty wakeup, main day of swell, everyone’s packing up their guns,” said Florence.” We’re gonna go hydrate and grab coffee, then hopefully it’s 20-foot Cloudbreak.”
When they pulled up to the wave, it was clear his wishes were coming true. He put on his floatation vest, grabbed his gun, and paddled out. Right from the get go, it was clear this would be a session to remember.
“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.”
It wasn’t just Florence who managed to snag one of the best waves of his life. “I’ve never seen a session where almost every single person got one of the waves of the day,” he said. “One of the best big-wave sessions I’ve ever been a part of. Conditions better than forecasted, swell bigger than forecasted and then a crew of some of the elite big-wave guys and some really talented guys that aren’t used to surfing big waves, but putting their skills into big waves. It just turned into a session of, one after another, guys getting the waves of their life and surfing big waves as comfortably as if they were surfing six footers. It doesn’t get any better.”
Now, that wave has been entered into the The Big Wave Challenge 2024. It’s early still, but this one will be hard to beat.
