Surfer Grant Twiggy Baker Surfs big 65 foot+ wave

Aug 15, 2008

Categories: Surf Randomness

Written By: Surf All Beaches

Pro Surfer Surfer Grant Twiggy Baker surfed a huge 65 foot+ wave, one of the biggest waves I have seen a picture of being surfed. I will post the video of Twiggy surfing this crazy big wave soon.

Zigzag photographer Alan van Gysen tells the story…

Obviously everyone around the world was amping and frothing when this swell appeared on their computer screens last weekend. All the big wave surfers currently in South Africa after the Red Bull Big Wave Africa prepared themselves to do battle with 8 meters at 15 secs. I even had magazines from Costa Rica frothing and setting aside 16 pages of editorial for the ‘African swell of the year’. It produced some amazing results in the end, but it definitely didn’t arrive and show itself in the perfection that was expected. Rather, it arrived slowly during Saturday 9 August with all the anger and turmoil of a tornado, proving once again that the coastline around Dungeons is one wild, unpredictable beast.

We left Hout Bay harbour and began the rough trip out to Dungeons, below the Sentinel, and I could see this was the biggest swell I had ever seen in in South Africa. Not only the biggest, but also the wildest, even though the wind was light. There was even a monster left point grinding its way below and around Chapmans Peak that looked like a Jurassic Park version of a lineup. In the distance I could see Dungeons approaching and in all honesty it looked ugly. I didn’t even want to be out there on a 500 horse power boat, so imagine a small 6.2 tow-board that is so weighted it barely floats. More like a giant sinker.

After arriving out there we got our first glimpse of the tiny figures of Twiggy, Greg and Carlos Burle on their jetski’s waiting for a wave. I couldn’t believe the guys were even considering surfing in this. The whole ocean was in turmoil and it looked more like a ragging river than a ocean. After an hour the tide got to it’s lowest for the day and we all decided that it was just not happening, no great waves ridden and no good photo ops. Before the guys packed it in, it was decided to explore the un-surfed white water indicator of Tafelberg.

Greg and Twiggy have been wanting to surf Tafelberg for some time now, but they wanted the biggest swell possible and here it was. We were greeted with inconsistent average waves…average, until Neptune delivered its final hand. We watched a smaller one explode off the reef and watched as the wave behind it broke into view. As we floated over the first wave, the tiny form of Twiggy could be seen skipping down the face of the biggest wave I have ever seen surfed, ever. Somehow Greg Long had managed to whip Twiggy in at the last moment to ride this amazing wave. A truly awesome moment.

And then, after his mental wave, it was over. The tide reached dead low and the ocean seemed to switch off, almost trying to regenerate itself after Twiggy’s massive 65 foot+ wave. We headed back to Dungeons to try surf and shoot the pushing tide, but after one extremely dangerous close call on the photo boat, air launching over the lip of a wide set, we called it a day.