PWC Surfing Timeline-The Transitional Year of PWC rescues/Surfing-changes came swift

[hellwoman]

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Possibly Irish surfing's greatest ever moment, the Irish team of Californian-based brothers Joe and Terry McNulty pulled off an astonishing second place overall at the World Big Wave Championships in Todos Santos, Mexico, early in '98. Indeed, the Irish only got a wildcard entry after Tahiti pulled out just before the competition and it was too late for many of the other counteries to organise a team. It was largely down to Roci Allen of the European Surfing Association, who put the word in for Ireland. Needless to say, the result shocked the surfing world, and despite many a cheap jibe at Irish surfers, the surfing community was generally stoked for us.

The McNultys sent the trophy over a few weeks ago. I haven't seen it myself but legend has it that it's a big fucker, about two foot high. They thought it would be more appropiate if it were kept with the Irish Surfing Association in Ireland to act as an inspiration for the rest of us cold water warrirors. Needless to say, this result greatly increases Ireland's chances of getting the World Championships within the next few years - don't laugh, it will happen, especially after the very successful staging of the Guinness Eurosurf '97 at Bundoran in Donegal. Fair Play lads, thanks a lot.

The following is a full report of the contest.

The Hawaiian team of Brock Little and Shawn Briley finally arrived at Todos Santos, a day late, but not too late. The ISA sanctioned Reef Big Wave Team World Championship was on its second day at "Killers" and headed into Round Two when the Australian Team of Ross Clarke-Jones and Tony Ray arrived along with Brock and Briley. Sean Davey was one of the few photographers who risked missing "The Eddie" and journeyed to the remote island off the coast of Baja Mexico. With the arrival of the Australians and Hawaiians, he knew he was in the right place.

The first round of competition was extended into Monday morning, Feb. 16th, to include the tardy Hawaiians and Australians. Shortly after arriving, the two teams paddled into the ice-cold water for some friendly competition... in the 20- to 30-foot surf. There was no prize money at stake, just BIG waves and big wave riders going for the gold medal, just like in the Olympics.

Brock wasn't feeling 100 percent. His voice was like an old man's, and Briley wasn't 100 percent either! He paddled out in surf shorts! With all their big wave bravado they made their way into the line-up. Before either team could catch anything, a gigantic wave came in. "It must have been 30-feet," Sean Davey said. "It was so big and black, and it broke so far out, they didn't have a chance. It cleaned them all up." Briley's board survived with minor scratches but he didn't bother going back out. The Australians had to use back-up boards, while Brock paddled back out for a couple. Still, the Australians dominated, especially Tony Ray.


Over the course of the event, ten teams competed from nine countries, plus the Hawai'i team. Taylor Knox and Peter Mel made up the American Team and the McNulty brothers made up the Irish Team. In the semis, Taylor Knox caught the biggest wave-- possibly the biggest of the winter. Some people thought it was "the K2 wave." Wipeouts were extreme too, with Terrence McNulty taking the "Best/Worst Wipeout" award when a mammoth lip landed on his head. Brazil's Carlos Burle broke three boards and after the event, made sure to thank the K38 jet ski rescue team for "saving my life, twice!" Thanks to those rescues, Brazil ended up in the finals surfing against Australia.

In the finals Carlos went big. He dominated with seven huge rides, leading the Brazilian team to gold in this first-ever, one-of-a-kind event. The Hawaiian team went home with nothing, but at least they survived.


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[hellwoman]

Todos Maximus
Going Beyond Huge at Reef Brazil's Big Wave Team World Championship at Todos Santos



Real estate owners, boat captains and rescue workers spent the winter months cursing El Nino, while die-hard surfers from around the world rejoiced over El Nino's fruits. Case in point was the Reef Big Wave Team World Championship held in some of the biggest waves ever ridden in competitive surfing's history, at Todos Santos Island, off Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

International camaraderie abounded at the larger than life event, that was organized and sanctioned by the International Surfing Association. The NATIONAL teams from The United States, Portugal, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, France, Venezuela, Ireland, Hawaii and Australia all gathered together at Todos Santos Island (12 miles off Ensenada) to represent their countries at the first ever Reef Brazil Big Wave World Championship.

Held at the aptly named spot Killers on February 14 and 16, 1998, the event is destined to go down in history as the day Killers put on it's most ferocious display of board munching, human tossing power ever. Waves were 20-to-25 foot PLUS or 40/50 foot faces. "I got more smashed in those 20 minutes than I did all winter [in Hawaii]," said Australian national team member and legendary big wave surfer Ross Clark Jones.

A clean up set broke Clarke-Jones' board just minutes into his first round heat, but a back-up board was delivered to him thanks to the on-site lifeguards zipping around on wave-runners. Moments after getting his new board, he shocked everyone when he spun around and dropped in way too late and way too far behind the peak on a hideous 20 footer. Good thing Clarke-Jones trains for big wave survival by running around on the sea-floor while holding boulders, because just before making it to the bottom of that wave, he fell off, skipped twice then got pounded in the impact zone and broke his leash. Strike two and Clarke-Jones was out.

Clarke-Jones called it quits after losing his second board. As soon as he got back to the boat, he borrowed a cell phone and called his shaper Jeff Bushman in Hawaii and put an order in for some replacement boards. The only thing more frightening than watching Clark-Jones' wipeout was being on the boat when a big clean up set swung wide and headed straight for the star board side of the 80 foot Royal Pacifico.

"El Capitan!" "El Capitan!" Screamed I.S.A. Executive Director Cadu Villela at the boat's captain as a 15 foot wave rolled straight for the boat. The captain managed to swing the massive vessel around and punched it just in time to make it over the top of the wave and avoided turning the Royal Pacifico into the Royal Titanico. Hot pots of coffee, camera equipment and bodies flew inside the cabin as the boat free-fell down the back of the wave. "This is freaking insane!" Said a jostled but still jolly cinematographer Sonny Miller moments after the near sinking.

Clarke-Jones and the Royal Pacifico weren't the only ones to feel the wrath of Killers. In fact, many competitor's admitted to feeling sick with fear at the thought of having to paddle out and charge the monstrous surf on the event's final day. "I looked over at my brother [Terrance] before the final and he looked really spooked," said veteran Todos Santos surfer and team Ireland member Joe McNulty. "He never gets spooked out there. He told me to be careful about 20 times."

Joe and Terrance didn't need to rely on Irish luck to get them into the final since surfing Killers is a kind of rite of passage for the McNulty brothers (five in total), who have been surfing the spot for nearly a decade. However they could've had better luck with equipment, since they broke 2 boards each and ended up having to borrow boards for the final. The McNulty's grew up and still reside in Southern California, but qualify to be on the Irish national surfing team since they have dual citizenship in Ireland and in the United States thanks to their Grandparents who were born in Ireland.

So who won the event you ask? Well, it wasn't either of the McNulty's, although they did manage to make good use of their many years of cumulative experience at Todos to finish fourth (Joe) and third (Terrance) in the individual division, plus second in the team division. And it wasn't Australia's Tony Ray, although he did have an uncanny knack for consistently finding the cleanest corners of every set. Also worth noting was a particularly impressive down-the-line/in-the-pocket ride by Ray that was the closest anyone came to getting tubed during the entire contest. Ray went on to finish second in the individual division and third in the team division along with fellow Australian Ross Clarke-Jones. That narrows it down to the champion of the event, so without further ado, announcing the winner of the first ever Reef Brazil Big Wave Team World Championship at Todos Santos, (drum roll please)....Carlos Burle from team Brazil.

Burle added a lot of excitement to the event not only by consistently catching and making the some of the biggest and best waves, and winning both the individual and team divisions along with Brazilian team mate Rodrigo Resende, but he actually drew blood in the process.

Burle was paddling back out after getting a wave during the semi-final when a big set came in that washed through everybody. Mike Parsons [who was observing from the channel at the time] was right in front of him, BUT WAS DRAGGED TOWARDS BURLE. "I dove as deep as I could," recalled Burle. "I remember thinking that I didn't need to worry about protecting my head with my arms while I was under water. That was my mistake because his board hit my head. But it wasn't as bad as I thought. I went to the boat and the ISA doctor told me I might need a couple stitches, but I could still surf the final." The burly Burle kept surfing the rest of the event with blood trickling down his face. In addition to drawing blood, Burle also broke two boards (a 9'8" and an 11'2") en route to his victory and got rescued twice by hot-shot wave runner rescue patroller Shawn Alladio. Alladio zipped into the pit on her wave runner to pick up Burle at the last second, then barely out-ran a huge wall of whitewater with Burle on the back."I fell and my board broke, then I had to swim under three set waves," said Burle. "She [Shawn Alladio] came and got me after the third wave. I got on the back and she told me to hold on because the next wave is going to be right behind us. For a moment I felt the wave on my back and then we got enough speed to get ahead of it".

Later that night, Burle along with several competitors and event staff gathered in video maker Ryan Dyball's hotel room to watch his footage of the day's epic event. The room erupted into loud hoots and cheers for Alladio's heroic rescue, but it was the footage of Taylor Knox's mind blowing drop into the biggest wave of the event, and possibly the biggest wave ridden all winter, that got the loudest cheers. The wide angle shot showed a tiny figure dropping down a 25 foot PLUS vertical wall of water. That's 25 foot "in any wave scale" as one of the judges stated after scoring the wave. Knox just kept dropping and dropping and dropping, then finally he made it to the bottom, turned the corner, kicked out, then slowly flopped off his board in ecstasy.