When you sit and watch a surf contest on your screen, how often do you consider what the surfers went through to be on that screen? If you’re like most people, it’s probably not often. Surf contests—and especially big wave surf contests—are notoriously difficult to do properly. The ocean is a fickle beast, and organizing a bunch of rag-tag surfers who reside all over the world at a moment’s notice is no easy task.
Organizers aside, the surfers often put themselves through the wringer just to show up at an event that might very well smash their bodies into bits. Early morning alarms, long flights, and insane boat trips all for a chance to throw yourself over the ledge of a wave that wants to eat you alive? Most people would say no thanks. Big wave surfers, however, are a different breed. “A room full of psychopaths” is how Koa Rothman described them in the safety meeting prior to the recent Cape Fear event. Still, though, it is what they live for. As Koa says, “this is livin’.”
