The email came through from one of the boys while stuck at the Denpasar Airport. Yatesy isn’t much of a big wave charger and (by the sounds of it) not very well prepared when it comes to forecasting size, choosing equipment and deciding on surf locations. 

Considering the slop we’d been faced with over the previous week, the email evoked digital hoots and applause from the channel some thousand kilometers away.

Photo: Fiona Peters Photography

Boys. I got G-Land consistently 6 foot with 8-10 foot bombs. I arrived around 9am and the tide was already out of it. It looked wild with the odd perfect one rolling through. Everyone there had already been out and saying "you don't wanna surf it on low". I was already shitting my pants without the crew saying that. 

Our ride home was due back at 3pm so I couldn’t wait for the tide to come up and the softer wave down at Tiger Tracks was no good on low either. After looking at it churn through some dredgy 8-10 foot monsters I was torn between sanity and seizing my only opportunity. 

Then two 60 year old salty sea dogs moseyed down from brekky and I explained to them my predicament. With the most casual nonchalance they said, "looks like we're gonna have to head out with you then", and with a nervous "ok", I was committed, with Mimi (Yatesy's girlfriend) and the rest of the crew as witnesses. 

I followed the old boys’ every foot step across the 100m of reef walk to the key hole as he picked out every bit of soft coral amongst the spikes and barnacles. His precision coral choice boosted my confidence and as I looked out to sea, it seemed that the last wave of a clean up set was making way for a lull that we had to shoot for without breaking stride. 

Four duck dives and I was out there. Just the three of us with the best seats in the house watching perfection roll through. The view from the hut on the shore did not do it any justice. I'd decided to let the other two take their pick of the waves before me out of gratitude, but the next set came. 8 foot and just the right angle. 

The two lads started hooting at me so I scratched my 5'10" into it as hard as I could. It came up quicker than I thought which made for a late take off down the steepest and biggest wall I've ever seen. I was skimming down it so fast I thought my fins were gonna melt off. My bottom turn felt like it wasn't gonna end and it took all my strength not to lose my rail. 

My speed took me way out in front of the barrel so I headed for the top to cut back in. As I looked back I had time to appreciate the sheer size of the beast. I couldn't wash off enough speed to get barreled so I cut back and forth. Eight or nine of the sweetest-feeling turns I've ever done until it closed out and I launched myself about twenty feet in the air with the biggest grin and to the hooting and hollering of the old boys about 500m up the point. 

I stayed out there for another 3 hours and got about a dozen waves. A couple of them threw over me but I was going too fast each time to get very deep. Still had the surf of my life.

Yatesy

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