Yeah he got the magic wave alright. Bit messy getting towed through the pack at 1.55 though. What are they thinking.. driver passes less than 2 metres from the outside paddler and they duck under his wash. Guess pwc distance laws in relation to paddlers must have changed.. and with him being a lifeguard and all , must be ok.

towing this size wave is embarrassing but good on him for milking it into a 7 minute clip.

Frother!
Love it

Towing into the pack with the rope going over their heads?

Should be renamed "Wanker on a jetski of the day". The covid super draw down has been spent wisely by many a dickhead.

What happen the rules if there are paddle surfers you stay away? Its just dangerous and frustrating for the paddle surfers.
Perhaps they are all mates and are cool with it.

Freeze @1.54 that Ski Rope is bullshit - Tim you edited out the ski rego number ?
Well surfed Eddie.

Photog should have destroyed the video and kept the hero still shot.

I say that cause the still was THE peak moment. The before and after is interesting but may have been better left to the imagination.

We often see too much these days. Less can be more.

Fucken kook. I would hide in a closet if I behaved like that.

Well, i feel the heat re the ski's in the lineup. Really on days like this towing is the only safe way to do it. I actually thought that there should have been more tow surfing as that swell direction from the Nth East to east is as dangerous as it gets. Most waves ridden either got towed into or got left behind. The amount of empty waves i videoed just went to show that paddle surfing on a day like this is almost impossible. In fact I am now going thru the days data and there were only a couple of waves paddled into the rest were wasted. Solander back in the day when the Bra boys ruled, mostly towed the place. And from my perspective the big ones are the less dangerous. It's the small paddle waves when you make a mistake that can leave you on the rocks.

Wow so much negativity... A random legend gets the wave of his life and the majority of comments are putting him down? I wonder if those keyboard warriors above who are quick to write him off would have a crack given the opportunity he had? Onya Eddie!!!

i hate being negative but i need to vent. tim's glorifying shitty behaviour and adding to the over-exposure of places like cape. there's no etiquette in the water, the video was 7 mins video with 30-odd seconds of footage and even then it was slow mo. there's neither any soul left in surfing, nor surf film making. poor form.

Not fussed about exposure for such an exposed spot. But as i said above sometimes less is more. The still shot (or maybe 2-3 shots) was the hero shot. That concept has been lost a bit these days.

7 minute clip for some wave he didnt ride out of.

Should have been a 1 minute clip. Interview could have been:
"I got illegally towed into a wave at Solander and blew it"

And Tim just because you don't think guys should have been paddling doesn't make it legal or right that there were guys towing in around the paddlers.

I watched the vid and really felt the need to comment!!!
Luckily I read the comments before I did, cause it seems virtually everyone else above has the same opinion. Not cool!

Jeez this has gone down well.

Poor form with the ski. Simple as that. "Wasted waves" is not an excuse. You seem like a good bloke Tim, but you've seriously misread the room on this one. Time for a rethink.

Totally agree with all the above comments, there’s not much more to say. Jet skis should not be towing where paddling surfers are. And this instance was extreme! All for the interview and insta video eh!!

The ski driver is no different to our leather life jacketed friends from Lakemba giving zero phucks on their skis, putting others at risk to impress those on the beach.

This sucked on many levels, but I think the real crime was the music selection.

So 7-8 guys were already paddling in and you rocked up and proceeded to split the pack with a ski!? Yeah well done.

The vid is a decent little study into the psychology of modern surfing.

Bloke gets towed into a lurching lump of swell, confesses to blacking out the memory of the event, then gets skittled by the foam ball. The rider himself didn’t think too much of the wave and he didn’t even think it was that thick or impressive until his mates started telling him that it looked cool from the channel.

Later that night when the still shots went viral on Insta and his status rose amongst his peers was when the adrenaline kicked in and the idea that it was the wave of his life formed.

If no one had witnessed the wave would he ever think anything amazing about that particular wave at all ?

yeup - Sadly kudos lost to the bloke and wave due to how it was done. The end dont justify the means. More examples of me me me's. Sorry Tim, I reckon what you do is great but this stuff ain't.

Hmm I can understand both sides here. I would be keen to hear from some of the crew who were paddling that day. If it's the case, as Kipp seems to suggest, that they knew their limitations and were happy enough with the tow ins happening around them, well no harm no foul. But if not...

Given the photo has gone viral and the vid is now getting traction, their silence may be somewhat indicting

Can any of those paddling in give their 2 cent worth? I'm a firm believer in paddle before tow, but me thinks they were cool with it and actually were probably handed the rope too

And....all the paddle crew are cool with it until.....the ski bloke kooks it or has a mechanical failure and takes out someone in the water and injury or death occurs. Its daft imo.

Yep agree with the music selction comment ....it hurt my head

Bogans, god love em'

What's the go with the driver @ 1:57, just after nearly running the crew over, turns back and points at them. Doesnt look like he's sorry, looks more like a threat, like he deliberately almost ran them over. I'm guessing one of the paddlers told him where to go, and that's his response. Typical ski driving clown.

More like Watch out for the Noose halfway up the Rope .

Agree with the above. Total disregard by the skis for anyone else’s safety. Send this to the authorities I say!!

Let me ask you this Tim. If a cyclist is legally riding their bike on the road and you’re driving in your car and think to yourself that the cyclists shouldn’t have been on the road for whatever reason you’ve thought about does that make it right to illegally drive your car through that pack of cyclists?

don...if they were wearing lycra..........

i wonder what reaction you would get from eddie if you pulled a similar stunt at tama while he was on duty?

Kipp - "Yeah brother I’m guessing you have probably never surfed here in your life? Also I was there for 6am till dark and maybe a handful of waves were paddled all day everyone paddling was taking turns slinging in and having fun as you need the speed when it’s that north but hey if you want to come paddle some on a day like that we will all stop towing and cheer you on haha"

Sounds like everyone in the line-up was ok with it and actually participating in tow-ins, if Kipp is to be believed.

Not until a paddler is killed by a ski will anything change for the better, in fact the prevalence and mayhem will just continue to increase, hence an impending death IMO. Not much room for error when you take into account all the variables.

Should have gone left and let the paddlers on the rights

Well what a mongral caarnt of a wave to catch. I thoroughly enjoyed every second..

I haven't rode a wave almost a year and this is just how I had invisioned myself surfing, looking across the channel down the passing barrels of recent bombing swell.

10/10 , until... reading above comments.

What a downer. My question is, were the paddlers bothered by the skis on this day?

I'm watching it again...

Towing through a busy line up.. that’s a paddlin
Claiming internet glory about it.. that’s a paddlin.
Paddlin the school canoe .. you better believe that’s a paddlin

Bad behaviour on the skis endorsed by Tim B for his own gain. Very sad but predictable as usual.

Some more from that day

Morning paddle crew seemed to take off after the circus blew in.

In zee olden days a good shot like that would have been on the cover of Tracks. Everyone would have gone ooh ahhh.

Any grumbles would have been heard over a beer somewhere by two people.

Now it on the grumblenet it is a bit different!

But again, Tim gave us too much information inviting deeper analysis. Two killer still shots and it would have stayed at the "wow" stage.

Are you really a paddle surfer if you're not catching any waves. Paddle spectators v angry!