Big Wednesday: 25th March 1998 - video
With the Gold Coast on the cusp of a significant swell event Swellnet contacted Brownie from Coastwatch who's documented many such swells over the years. Brownie pulled out this gem:
"From the Coastwatch Video Vault this John Charlton story captures the birth of tow-in surfing in Queensland. On Wednesday 25th March 1998 a really big swell was pounding the coast and a huge crowd gathered to watch Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Dwayne Thuys, and Dave Simons use jet skis to tow one another into the massive waves breaking outside Snapper Rocks and Rainbow Bay. Since then, tow-in surfing in big swells has become quite common, but on that day, seeing it for the first time was a mind blower."
-Brownie
Comments
I remember that swell..... Boiling pot was all time..... Think i only got 3 waves in 4 fucking hours.... But they were rippers..... I think Danny Wills was in the water that day.... Pretty sure that was the swell.... He was ripping...
Such good memories. I used to hang all week to catch Brownie's Coastwatch, and JC's segment. Taped and re-watched every episode a thousand times
Yeh those were great days Kaiser, waiting with your finger on the record button to lay down some vhs segments
so funny! highlights my comments regarding the unsurfable nature of the GC with swells over 6ft. KS's boredom is quite obvious
HaHa You must still be in your nappies then. For your general info, surfing was also around before the late nineties . There were many totally epic days at places like Kirra at 10 foot plus. Granted, they were awhile ago, and the old girl hasn't shown her best quality in quite awhile, but when she does fire up, she will totally rock your world.
How's the music! A seven minute guitar solo.
That must be the biggest joke in your realm Caml;)
That guy Dwayn, looked like Strop :-D