Every swell that marches through the South Pacific this season with Cloudbreak set in its crosshairs is going to be hyped. This isn’t to say any XL or even XXL sessions on the Fijian left-hander wouldn’t get plenty of coverage, but I think we can all agree that the hype is up a notch this year knowing that the WSL is going to decide its world champions there later this year. We did the same with Teahupo’o the moment it was announced as the competition site for Olympic Surfing in the 2024 Summer Games, and Teahupo’o already gets its fair share of love every year with or without the world’s largest sporting event coming to town.
Well, we have the season-opener out of the way now. What was originally hyped as a potential XL event grabbed some attention last week but the actual swell was probably a downgraded version from what many expected. That doesn’t mean it disappointed though. It didn’t.
This highlight footage from May 20 shows a solid day at Cloudbreak that would fit right into the sweet spot for a WSL Finals Day. Not so big you worry an athlete might get hurt or endanger themselves with a world title on the line, but certainly not small, and absolutely worthy of a Dream Tour title-deciding day.
Now we wait it out for that August 27-September 4 window by blowing up every session and every forecast we can get our hands on this summer.
