Last week we brought you Mark Mathew’s big wave blog (CHASING CHALK). Today we’ve got the full, mind-blowing film of the wave itself courtesy of O’NeillTV, described by Matthews as the biggest wave of his life. For more movie gold from O’Neill check out their recently released documentary of the Cold Water Classic Scotland HERE
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The 26 year old from Maroubra in Sydney waited about six hours in order to get this incredible 15 second ride.
“It had been really slow all day and I hadn’t had any good ones,” said Mark.
Then this mountain came roaring out from the horizon I got goose bumps all over as soon as I saw it. I looked up at Hippo (Ryan Hipwood) who was on the jet ski and he didn’t even smile he just said “this thing is huge.”
“There was so much water sucking off the reef. I just kept my eyes right in front of me and hoped the corner of the barrel wasn’t about to lip me in the head.”
Trying to describe the sensation, Mark said: “Big barrels like that feel like they are alive. They suck all the air inside. That’s what surfers mean when they say they felt the wave take a breath.”
“You feel like you’re surrounded by the whole ocean. The air has nowhere left to go and just gets spat out into the channel, taking you with it. This is the feeling that keeps coming back over and over and over again.”
“This one can be topped,” said Mark. “It’s the thrill of the chase that keeps me going.”
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