It was totally awesome. I was totally there. The waves were still huge from the giant swell sent to Huntington courtesy of a Tahitian storm. Many of the massive wave would just wall out, crash and blow mist up the beach.
The US Open was down to the Round of 16 which meant 2 man heats . So all the crowd had to watch was Kelly Slater in the white jersey, Nic Muscroft in the red jersey, and huge, huge waves.
Then on the horizon, yet another behemoth starts rolling in. Muscroft and Slater start paddling to get over it. But then the crowd collectively realized, Kelly Slater wasn’t paddling over it…he was paddling into it. In unison the crowd let out a gasp as if we were all in a campy Franky Valley movie. Slater went racing down the impossible face at ramming speed. He was nearing the bottom and safety once again, when he started trimming himself back up into the curl. Another gasp from the crowd. Slater disappeared into the barrel and all was silent. Time stood still and wave rolled on. Then Slater triumphantly streaked out of the curl just as it was closing on the far side. We, the crowd, erupted in surfing delight. The white wash burst around him with such force that his leash snapped.
It was totally awesome. I was totally there.
[youtube width=”550″ height=”445″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HthGZsDaZtk[/youtube]