just got this e mail through from Surftwisted team rider, Duncan Scott, busying himself in Africa. Read it,
Hi T Bone,
Here’s the link to some video footage from this past weekend’s mega-swell that hit Cape Town, South Africa at Dungeons, Sunset and Tafelberg Reef.
http://www.surfline.com/video/video_player/video_player.cfm?id=17587
On the time-code, you can see me on the sled of my jetski with Mark Visser driving at 00:24, and my best wave commences at 00:37 until 00:47 on the clock.
If you look closely, after I push through the foam-ball, you can see the surge from the bowl start to spin my board out at 00:41, pushing me off balance and nearly causing me to eat crap right in the apex of the bowl…luckily I was able to hang onto it and ride it out, but it was a scary freaking moment for sure!
Guys were wearing two impact vests and still being held under for more than 30 seconds at a time…on the really big set waves, double-wave hold-downs were the norm..Heavy!
A number of superlatives were reached on this swell, Twiggy Baker got a set at Tafelberg Reef which looks to top the 70 feet (22m) mark, making it the biggest ever in Africa, and between Twiggy and Greg Long, they reckon it was bigger than their XXL-winning rides at Cortes Bank last year (being the biggest waves ridden globally in 2007.)
I towed with Australian Mark Visser, who has had several nominations for Billabong XXL ‘Ride of the Year’ and Oakley’s Australian Big-wave Awards in the past. He has also done well in the WCT trials at the Billabong Pro Tahiti at Teahupoo and towing-in at Jaws with Jamie Sterling, so it was really positive working with him in such demanding heavy-water conditions.
We anchored up my back-up towboard at Sunset on 35 m of line early Saturday morning, and so much water was moving through the bay into the impact zone that the board got pulled 8 feet under water and completely disappeared for 36 hours, being barely visible in the passing swells, right in the 40-50 foot impact zone.
We eventually were able to get to it by swimming down with a dive knife on Sunday once the swell had calmed down (somewhat)…
Sunday followed with a 6hr paddle-in session at 30 ft (10m) Sunset, and with a top international cast in the water, the performance levels were incredibly impressive.
Hawaiians Mark Healey, Jamie Sterling, Brazil’s Carlos Burle, Chilean Ramon Navares and Californians Greg Long and Gary Linden joined the local Cape big-wave crew with some awesome paddle-in surfing.
Thanks for the support in making it all possible,
Duncan
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