During the south swell that hit the east coast on Monday Matt Grainger and Sean Woolnough surfed the German Bank; the fabled bomby that sits furthest out off the Long Reef headland. Fresh back from Hawai'i, and comfortable riding longer boards, they shunned the jet-ski and paddled the 1.5 kilometres from the beach to the bombie.

There they tried to make sense of the huge takeoff area as subtle differences in size and direction caused the waves to break in various places. They both took a few lickings as stray sets caught them inside throughout the session. But they both threw themselves over a few ledges too, launching heart-in-mouth takeoffs into hands-in-the-air drops as they hooked in late on 9ft+ boards.

Knocking the session on the head Matt jagged a bomb and rode the wave 1.5 kilometres from the bombie back to the beach. Not to be outdone, Sean caught the next one and did exactly the same thing.

All photos by Butts.// STUART NETTLE