D DAY
Scott McKercher
So this was the day all the nerves were about. Jason’s forecast for his previous big day [in 2011] was 3.6m on an 18-second period swell. This one was 4.2m on a 15-second period. But the consensus was that it wasn’t going to be as big, with the howling winds holding the swell back. And it wasn’t. On the way out past Namotu we saw a nice one wrapping around the island, but it wasn’t huge, so already I knew it wasn’t going to be in the ridiculous scale.
As we pulled up, Jason was already out there on a boat with Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning – who’d had their early morning session and were on their way back – so he jumped ship into ours. He’d been looking at it for a while, but there were dubious glassy patches holding him back. With a shifty peak from the inside to out, it was way too easy to get cleaned up like a sitting duck with nowhere to go.
