Beast Of A Wave – Beyrick De Vries – 10 Point Ride, Sunset Beach

Anyone who has been to Hawaii will tell you that Sunset Beach is scary. It’s an intimidating, big, shifty wave that delivers high rewards at massive risk. The main risk being getting caught inside and flogged, or drowned. Some surfers thrive on this sort of drama; others shy away from it as much as possible.

Still, if you’re serious about a career as a professional surfer you need to have a serious go at waves like Sunset, and even at Pipe. Careers are made out there, and careers are broken out there.

Sunset is a big and scary playing field.

I recall a trip to Hawaii a few years ago when a young hopeful told me that if Sunset got big, as it was due to get, that he ‘wanted nothing to do with it.’ While I totally understood all the elements of fear that come into place, one couldn’t help but think – wrong career bru. As it turns out he had a career change soon afterwards.

Then again, when someone stands up tall, in the biggest tube on the biggest wave of the biggest day in front of a critical crowd whilst surfing in a very important contest, careers are made. Martin Potter did it at Pipe in 1982 at the age of 17, and Beyrick de Vries did it yesterday at 12-foot Sunset. That’s 12-foot Hawaiian, children, so 25-foot faces. We lit up his phone in Hawaii.

Interview by: Craig Jarvis

Beyrick de Vries on the wave of his career.

ZAG: How were you feeling about the forecast for the Vans World Cup?
BEYRICK: I saw it in my dreams, in my nightmares. I hadn’t had enough practice and I knew it was going to be massive and that they were going to have to run. I knew what I had to do, but I was pretty nervous. I was taking notes from Travis, and I had seen what he had done in the past at Chopes, so I knew I had to stand up and do it.

How many times had you surfed Sunset prior to the event?
Three surfs, including a quick surf in the morning before the contest. That was a gnarly surf. I caught one wave, then got beat down by about 5 or 6 waves and washed in. It’s a hard wave to work out at first. There’s so much going on. Luckily Jake Patterson dialled me in on a good line-up spot, and it really worked and helped me so much.

How did it look when you arrived?
I got there in the dark and it was really hard to judge what was going on. When I started realising how far out the guys were and how many times overhead the waves were I started to get a feel of the scale and it was Oh My Goodness! I checked a few close out sets and it was pretty massive out there.
I ride Clayton’s board back home, but when I got to Hawaii I ordered a few local boards from some of the top local shapers. I was riding a 6’9” Eric Arakawa in my heat and it felt so good, like a shortboard.

Talk us through the wave. It started off with such a sketchy take-off way on the outside.
There were huge waves out there, and some of them had these little wedges on, like an extra lump, and I just couldn’t find those ones. I saw Tommy (Whittaker) get a wave, and there were two minutes left so I had to stick to Koa (Smith). That wave came through and I had to go, pretty much, to keep Koa off. When I got it and looked down the line it looked good, so I pulled in for the barrel and I came out and did a grab-rail carve and another turn. At the end of that wave I straightened out and I got bounced so hard off the reef. It was so sore. I bounced on my coccyx and my left arse, and it was so sore, but when I heard that it was a 10-point ride the pain went away.

Watch Beyrick’s crazy ride from all angles.

How was the reception on the beach after the heat?
There was a whole lot of congratulations, and whistling from the tower. Pretty cool when I realized that the whistling was for me and not for an outside set or something.

It’s your first ten-point ride as well. That must feel pretty sick?
Yes it did. More so that it wasn’t a snap to turn to air-reverse on a 2-foot wave.

At what stage were you scared?
It was a big, nervous heat. I was scared taking off on that wave, but I wasn’t that scared when I pulled in. the board felt so good, and it was going fast underfoot. There’s a saying that you’re most scared of what you don’t know, but I feel so less scared because I know a bit more about Sunset now. Now I know more about which waves to look out for, which waves are going to give the scores, and where to sit.

So, feeling good about the event?
I had so many scenarios playing out in my head, so many things that could have gone wrong, that I could have made a fool of myself out there, so I was a bit surprised at how well everything went. Now I want to do it all over again tomorrow.

Anything you might change about your approach now?
We were stuck in such rad traffic getting to the beach. It took us 40 minutes from Turtle Bay to Sunset, and I was with Travis (Logie) and I started spinning out. At one stage we weren’t moving at all, and I said something like, ‘this shit makes me really anxious,” or words to that effect, and Travis was like, why? He said, “You’ve still got an hour before your heat. You only need to be there five minutes before your heat starts, and then you can still go out there and get two nines.”
Travis explained to me that I needed to control what I can control and not stress too much about the rest, which made me totally rethink my general approach.

Then you went out there and got the wave of the day, and worldwide media coverage. Star performer at maxed Sunset. It’s a helluva thing. Well done! This is a turning point in your career.
Shot! Doing OK in a really powerful wave does make me feel that I actually belong here, belong on the tour. I have made a career decision to be a pro surfer and this makes me feel like I made the right decision. My arse is still so sore from hitting the reef, but I’m still smiling.

There you go….