6000 kays for a pit of gold
Mark Mathews, 26, of Maroubra doesn't miss many swells. Last year, he caught over 30 international and 40 domestic flights. When this swell started to show on his long-range buoyweather forecast, he was in the Maldives for the WQS. He knew what he was looking at. He didn't froth around on other sites getting confused about what to do. He boarded a plane home and met Australia's biggest swell of the year head on. When a bodyboarder was in line for the wave of the day, he decided to go anyway. The bodyboarder kicked out and Mathews rode the biggest cave of his career. When STAB called a jet-lagged Mathews, it was 4am in South Africa and he was more than wiling to explain how he keeps finding these monstoid pits...
STAB: Talk us through the wave.
Mark Mathews: There were four or five skis out there in the morning. This one was late in the day, when there were only a couple of us still out there. I'd waited for ages and had just caught a shitty one. When this one came through it was actually Mitch Rawlins' go. I just looked at Hippo (ski pilot, Ryan Hipwood) and just went, "Fucken go! Go! Go!" We weren't trying to snake em, I just wanted to go behind Rawlins in the pit. The tube is definitely big enough out there. We were coming across at the wave from behind and those guys were coming down at it more straight. It's real hard to tow on a lid coming across at it because you hit all of the bump. They pulled off and then I was in the perfect spot.
Was Rawlins spooked to miss the wave of the day?
Nah, he'd had so many good ones that day. He rules that place. He waits all day for the good ones and he knows what they look like. It really is tough to work out what the bombs look like out there.
Do you think it'd possible to get deeper at this right? Discuss.
Every time I see the footage afterwards I feel like I could've been deeper. The thing is you can't just gather your speed and race across and backdoor it from behind. You have to go straight in thick waves like this. There's too much water moving up the face to go sideways through a tube. It's the same at Ours and it's really deceiving. This was Hippo's (Ryan Hipwood) first time here and he actually couldn't believe how deep we were actually riding em.
What's a wipeout like out here?
Violent. It feels like it's gonna rip your limbs from your body. Sometimes if you fall in the tube you pop straight out the back. When you fall in front though it pushes you deeeeeep. It's like 10 strokes to the surface, of full-on swimming. It's really deep water and you get pushed really, really deep.
No straps, no lifevest, is this the age of vanity towing?
They feel shithouse. They look shithouse. I don't like straps, I hate feeling like I can't move my feet. I like to put my toes over the rail in the tube. And, I've got a tiny thin little vest under my wettie, just in case I get knocked out underwater.
Check out the entire wave on Mark's new blog, Chasing Chalk.
Posts: 7
Reply #7 on : Tue August 04, 2009, 10:15:37