Photo: Tim Bonython // Instagram
Tim Bonython makes it his business to be right in the middle of the world’s most hazardous breaks, whether it’s Nazaré in Portugal or Cape Solander in his homeland of Australia. Years of experience during countless swells have made him adept at navigating these troubled waters, but even the greats aren’t immune to close calls. Bonython experienced one such close call on a recent trip to La Vaca, in Spain, as he showed and described in back-to-back Instagram posts. He and his Jet Ski driver were caught up in a massive wall of whitewash that pummeled both men, destroyed the ski, and sent the bulk of Bonython’s camera equipment to the bottom of the ocean.
“Definitely a trying day, after all that,” described Bonython, in a video detailing how the event unfolded. “There was a bit of post-traumatic syndrome going on in me. It felt like I’ve been in a car accident after. Really, at the end of the day, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. I think I was more angry at losing my camera because I’ve been treating that baby like a baby for so long. It just was really important and to lose it like that was really devastating to me.”
View this post on Instagram
Then he gets to the events leading up to and including the wipeout, which sounded harrowing, to say the least. “It just happened so quickly,” he continues. ”That’s the thing about this big wave game. Everything can be okay, until suddenly it’s not. You just never know what you’re in for. I suppose, really, when you look at what I do, that kind of stuff happens sometimes, and you’ve got to be ready for it. I don’t think I was prepared for it like I should have been. I didn’t think it was going to turn into a Nazare-style situation at the end of the day.”
That day started off with eight to 12-foot waves that were “pretty mellow” according to Bonython (although “mellow” may have a slightly different definition for him than the rest of us). However, when the swell arrived everything changed. Bonython and his ski driver, Thomas, watched as massive sets broke out to sea and reformed over the reef. “This last set that came through, when I look at the hindsight of it all, I should have really pulled the pin on it, because it was getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” he says.
He then continues, “By the time we got ran in by the set, and the set didn’t reform, it just kept on rolling in towards the rocks – I looked at Thomas, I said, ‘Mate, you’re going to need to turn real quick. We’re going to have to find a window.’ So we finally got around, turned into it, and actually went okay, went through the first wave.”
However, they were not so lucky with the second. “There’s a cove where the surfers were coming and going – all rocks, no beach, no sand,” explains Bonython. “We turned the opposite direction to where the cove was. [Thomas] turned so quickly because the rocks were right there, there was no way he could go in and swing and turn straight at the whitewater and then go at the whitewater. That’s where we came undone.”
Bonython’s camera was wrenched from his hands, which he describes as feeling like he was having his arms pulled from their sockets. Immediately after, he began to be pushed towards the rocks, as he took wave after wave on the head.
Quickly, though, he was retrieved by a rescue ski and brought back to safety. After returning safely to shore, Bonython describes the sense of shock and realization that caught up with him. “I went through all these emotions of like, ‘Man, I almost died. I could have been on the rocks.’ Then I started to think about my camera. ‘Where’s my camera?’ Then I looked over, and there’s Thomas poring over his Jet Ski, which was absolutely obliterated.”
Ever the consummate videographer, Bonython mentions that he will produce a new edit of the event. However, it’s going to take him some time to replace the equipment he lost. “I reckon I had some really good vision from the Jet Ski, but of course, now that’s on the bottom of the ocean,” he continued. “I don’t think it’s ever going to be retrievable, and I haven’t seen or heard of anything in relation to my camera. I know that it would have got so smashed up that it would have ended up on the ocean floor out there somewhere and never to be seen again. I also lost a box of batteries in a Pelican case that’s probably sitting on the ocean floor as well and three GoPros. So it was a bit of a mess. I’ve pretty much lost everything that I have. I have a little Sony A7S and that’s going to see me through for the foreseeable future, until I can get my gear all replaced.”
In the end though, he remains undeterred from his pursuit of big waves – something we are thankful for. “Not sure where I’m going to go and what I’m going to do in relation to the future, but I can tell you right now that I haven’t finished with what I do, what I love to do,” he concludes. “At the end of the day, it’s just providing vision for everybody to see and to share these incredible moments of the ocean and these incredible athletes doing the best they can in some amazing waves.”
View this post on Instagram
