“All time” is a phrase that’s easy to overuse. We are guilty of it here at The Inertia. We even reserved the phrase for photographers to retell some of their favorite moments behind the lens, so those two words end up in a lot of headlines on this website. But when you hear enough people from different corners of the surf world throw them out after a noteworthy swell it becomes obvious that the words “all time” haven’t lost their touch entirely. And that’s exactly how I’ve heard (and read) plenty of people explain last week’s offseason Cloudbreak swell in just a matter of days.
Tim Bonython, who’s dedicated himself to chasing these swells around the world with his camera just as much as any big wave surfer said, it “takes the award for one of the best paddle sessions I’ve EVER filmed.” That’s a high mark to hit. His half-hour film documenting the day captured similar thoughts and sentiments from people who felt the same. In their words:
Billy Kemper:
“Today is a day that will go down in history. I’ve been surfing for over 30 years now and I can count on one hand how many days I’ve seen like that. It’s when everything comes together. You’ve got a good crew, a good vibe, good environment, you’re in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and the swell over-delivers. The conditions are better than you could ever dream of. Everything outdid all expectations. And in surfing, strike missions — traveling around the world chasing that — it’s few and far between how many days you get like this in a lifetime.”
“I’ve been part of a lot of big wave sessions — bigger sessions, for sure, where there were bigger, heavier waves — but to me the level of surfers out, the conditions, and the size of the swell was just condensed to make a session that was guaranteed to be historic. Every single person that entered the water and rode a wave got one of the waves of their life.”
“I dreamed of it being that good. You hope it’s that good. You never expect it to be that good. You just hope one day you’ll be a part of a session that just one day does it…today felt like one of those.”
Benji Brand:
“That was the best day of all our lives, I think. We’ve never seen a day like that anywhere in the world. It was so insane in the morning and the conditions just got cleaner and cleaner. Every hour we’re saying ‘how could it get any better than this?’ And it just kept getting better. We all got the waves of our lives. I’ve never seen barrels that big and been in barrels that big.”
Parker Coffin:
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, honestly. It was so big, so clean, and there wasn’t that many guys out…I was thinking today, so many guys must’ve gotten the waves of their life today just because it was that kind of day. (It was) so special to be a part of it, I was just grateful to be here and so stoked to be staying at Tavarua.”
“It was kind of one of those ‘pinch me days’ as a surfer.”
Conner Coffin:
“That might be the best day of waves I’ve seen in my whole life.”
Jojo Roper:
“It exceeded all expectations, which is pretty rare these days. We always expect this crazy thing from crazy numbers and this one had small numbers and way over-performed. It was epic.”
“The waves were choosing people today and some people came out with the waves of their lives and some people got slapped by Cloudbreak. Everybody had a different session.”
