When an image like the one above drops into your mailbox, it grabs you straight away. You stop what you doing and you reach out to the photog and hellman who took on that freak to squeeze the lemon and find out more.
AVG:
The following morning after the swell had peaked, the bank had become perfectly groomed. Every now and then, a rogue stiff bit of wave energy would roll through bringing in these mega sets. Lukes wave was the second in the set to come through. You could just tell it was gonna be this mean double up. I was floating there yelling ‘SOMEONE GO’ then Taj started paddling before pulling out at the last second about 10m above luke. Blew my mind, so I screamed for the lightie (luke) to go. Just like that he turned, paddled and actually got into it. But, it was honestly such a gnarly double up with water sucking so hard up the face and at a strange angle, which was ultimately where Luke came undone.
From the beach, apparently, it looked as if Luke was getting pulled sideways before being projectiled over the falls. It was at that moment the wave blocked my view, so I just couldn’t get those final punishing shots. Luke is honestly one of the hardest charging groms out there. Following that wave Taj actually paddled in, he was done after seeing the Donkey skop Luke like that.
Luke Slijpen:
Yeah, was the last day we were there and I hadn’t had many photos or anything with AVG and Ian so we all went out together. We started out at the top but didn’t really get on the end of anything so we began drifting down toward the gnarlier, heavier section of the wave. That’s where that wave came through. Taj was actually on my inside when it came through and I thought he was gonna take it. He didn’t. So I had to go, I couldn’t let it go through, AVG was in the spot and man you just never know. That wave could have turned into the wave of my life, but yeah, I wish it did (laughs). At first, when I made the drop after taking off, I thought I was good but there was a lot of chop on the water and I could see it starting to bottom out. From there, I started bottom turning without my hands not grabbing my rail. Thereafter one of those chops just caught me and I got pitched up giving me such a beating as I bounced across the bank a couple of times, but ey it was fun.
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