A few months back, lauded big-wave surfer James Hollmer Cross scored a bomb.
He towed into a crazy one at Tasmania’s mutant slab, Shipstern Bluff, and video of the wave went somewhat viral. Even Kelly Slater commented:
“That was a fucking heater! Nice hiding spot in there.”
And now, per the AClassic Podcast, they caught up with Hollmer Cross about the wave, captioning the clip:
“This wave has gone VIRAL on social media.
“James and Aclassic collaborated on it and within a week it had over a million views with people asking the question ‘How did you make that?!!’.
Even the great Kelly Slater was impressed by this one!
So today we get to hear from the man himself on how he made that wave! Thank you James Holmer Cross for taking the time to chat with us, make sure you jump over to instagram and check him out for plenty more wild Tassie surfing!
Here’s what Hollmer Cross had to say:
“It’s one of those ones, one of the south ones, that just totally missed the step.
“I’ve had waves out there like that and you don’t make it out. It’ll clamp on you. I just went for that one. And I just pulled under; I just made it. I’m waiting for the step and I realize it’s not there, so I just pull under.
“It was a big one. I’m very close to the lip. When I pulled up under the lip, I could see everything, and then everything went white.
“What I’ve learned out there is that you just hold your line. Sometimes you might cavitate on the foamball. But then [your fins] will grab again. So, you just gotta be sorta relaxed. I could see that one was going quite high, like a moth to a light, and I followed it.
“I was just following the light. [Laughs.]”
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