Picking between several swells is better than no swell. Photo: Ed Sloane//WSL
The World Surf League faces a tough decision with the Fiji Pro forecast. Enough swell will be on tap to run the event in decent — maybe even good — conditions through the first several days. But a carrot is dangling at the end of the waiting period: a potentially epic, larger swell still a week away.
The WSL very well could finish the event early and call it a success. Or they could risk passing on contestable waves in hopes of waiting for a potentially monumental day of Cloudbreak. Either option carries some risk.
Stu Johnson, a Californian who moved to Fiji 18 years ago and has worked as the Fiji Pro beach announcer since 2012, understands the intricacies of this dilemma as well as anyone.
“Cloudbreak’s a hard one to predict in general, just because of local winds and little high pressures around that blow swells and chop it up a bit,” Johnson told The Inertia. “It’s always a bit of a mystery.”
Johnson says that one of the best indicators for a Cloudbreak swell is turning on the Raglan camera. If New Zealand’s premier left-hand point is firing, the Fijians know a formidable swell is 36 hours out.
“That’s kind of our best buoy,” Johnson said. “If it’s three days of good waves at Raglan, we’re gonna have three days of good waves at Cloudbreak.”
According to Johnson, the waves should be fun today at Cloudbreak. But the tail end of the forecast is creating what he calls a contest director’s “nightmare.”
They’d have to “hold for what looks like could be a good run of swell at the end of the window when the storms haven’t even formed yet,” he said. “So it’s a bit scary for (the WSL) to potentially call off very contestable days through the middle of the waiting period to hold off for those last two or three days that look like they could potentially be some of the best competition days of the year.”
Johnson isn’t calling the shots. But if it were up to him, he would do everything in his power to make sure this incoming swell gets factored into the event.
“If I had a choice, I would definitely want to see the event run in pumping Cloudbreak,” he said, “and so does the world.”
