Wi-Fi connectivity is sparse, C36! Pretty sure that was just a filler shot..
Day 3 (Jan 17), Session 3. Esperance, Twilight BeachPhotoshoot. Driving out of Esperance, we stopped for a quick spot check at Twilight Beach, which has a crazy rock formation and super clear turquoise water - an ideal place to get some shots. Rigged up 3 foil setups and went for a blast. Wind was pretty strong on the outside, but fun foiling in a pack of 3, with a drone overhead. The cloud cover never fully broke unfortunately, so we only got stints of the classic turquoise, mega clear water Esperance is known for. 44 degrees C in the parking lot, might be the hottest place I've ever sailed at!
A good break before hitting the road for 7hours, through kangaroo infested windey back roads..
Day 4 (Jan 18), Session 4. Margaret River, Harbour/boat launch.RnD. With the first few days not amounting to much for testing and catalogue shots, we got an early start in the harbour to do the final testing of the 2019 foil boards. Wind was pretty gusty and puffy, but it allowed us to put some solid testing in. As cool as it was to be involved in the development process of next year's foil boards, I couldn't help thinking, "I didn't come to WA to foil"
Day 4, Session 5. Margaret River, Surfer's Point/Main break.Terrifying redemption. After lunch we headed over to Main break, the spot Margaret River is known for. Wind was filling in pretty nicely - most males on 5.2 or so. Unfortunately, 5.2 was the sail I totalled on day 1, so I was on the bench until I had a 5.3 to borrow. That was ok though, as I wanted to spend a lot of time watching to figure the spot out. In the back of my mind, I recalled Johnny's mate John, saying, "After Margaret River, Hookipa is a cake walk". The spot is certainly not short on hazards, including but not limited to: strong rips, submerged rocks and reef, strong waves, limited entry and exit spots, sharks, etc.
The launch into the water is made via a "keyhole", a 4" wide, deeper water channel through the a big section of flat rock near the shore, that goes for about 7m into deeper water. Said section of Flat Rock is known as "The Surgeon's Table", for the lives it has taken over the years.. To land, you have two options depending on the tide: Option 1 (boss mode): ride a little bump on the way back in, and sniper your way into the keyhole. Option 2, if the tide allows, land a bit downwind in a sandy beach. If you miss Option 2, you end up in a no wind zone, with shorebreak dumping onto jagged rocks. Said jagged rocks span about 100m before the next patch of reasonably clear sand beach you could come in on, but you'd be swimming against the current to land there. One of the guys in the group tells me of his first session here last year, getting sucked out there and eventually/luckily getting pulled in by someone on a jet ski. Reassuring.
The waves were a "small day" by local standards, but the locals and pros didn't seem to have trouble finding logo to mast high faces.. I sacked up as best I could, and made my way over to the keyhole for the evening session, with most of the crowds thinned out. Did the gear-saving body drag technique out through the key hole (more accomplished sailors beach start and sail out) and successfully made it out to deeper water with all fins intact. 5.3/86 was just right once on the outside, but took a while to get dialed in after the morning of foiling. I seemed to be bearing off a lot to stay clear of peaking sections, so having tacked on the outside I decided to pinch quite a bit on the first bump I caught, to avoid getting caught downwind. The bump I was on was offering some serious speed and starting to wall up quickly. I start eyeing up my line to make my first bottom turn, and to my dismay I had ended up upwind of the peak, and this logo high face I'm on is about to break, 25' downwind of me. F!@#. I had done exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do, which was stay on the left shoulder of the wave for the first few, out of the danger zone... I just had time to tack out the back of that one, because trying to run it out into the flats was not looking like a feasible option, which would leave me in the impact zone over shallow rocks/reef. To my horror, there was a set coming in right behind, peaking exactly where I was. Sunk my mast as deep as I could and hung on to my boom, with my stomach in my throat. This was no small wave... watching this thing wall up to come dump on me was probably the single most terrifying moment of my windsurfing career to date. I remember thinking "that's it, you're totally f'd, the gear is gonna be totalled and you're gonna be swimming for your life in a couple seconds." I hung on for the working and thankfully my rig duck had worked pretty well, so I came out with everything intact. But another one was coming, and another one after that, both peaking right where I was. Rig ducks worked again and I survived the following two, not really sure how given the size and power of these waves.. "Sail is in one piece? Yes (thank God), time to get the f' out of here" I sail as far out as I can, to regain my composure and catch my breath.
Bigger swell seemed to be coming in now, and I remember thinking "what am I doing out here? The fun-danger-intensity ratio is totally out of wack". I was contemplating trying to sail straight back to the beach, but I wanted at least one solid ride before calling it quits. A few familiar faces sailed out past me and that worked to reassure me slightly. Tested the waters delicately on a few logo-high shoulders - starting to understand why this is considered one of the highest performance waves in the world. Even on this "small" local day, the speed I was winding up on these faces was insane. If Cape Sebastian got a board into 3rd gear, here we were in the red in 5th.
Gybed out of my shoulder ride and as I was coming back out I watched Patrick Diethelm bottom turn on this over mast high thrower (as the lip was already chucking) and smack the lip for a massive aerial into ejection rag doll. Absolutely mental.
The adrenaline basically didn't turn off after my Marg's initiation and I felt like I was gonna hurl for the rest of the session thereafter, so after piecing together what for me was the best 3 hit wave of my life, I headed for the beach. Successfully landed at Option 2, heart still going a million miles an hour, thankful that gear and body were intact.
Not sure what I had expected from the spot, to be honest, but what I experienced there during that session was something so far out from anything I had ever experienced in windsurfing to this day, 10 years into the sport. The days I got at Pistol and the Cape in 2016 were awesome and at times "scary" but I would rate the biggest moments there at 3/10 compared to yesterday at Marg's. It was something else.