Six of the best swells ever recorded at one of the world’s best waves.
Cloudbreak is widely regarded as one of the world’s premier waves. As such, its ceiling is pretty high. An average surf at the Tavarua reef pass could be your surf of the year and it consistently provides world-class waves across its high, mid, and low seasons. But, every few years, the world’s best wave goes into beast mode. These days, only the best surfers in the world, as well as experienced Tavarua vets, can take part. The rest of us can only watch, or surf restaurants, which will be half the size, and even more perfect.
Dream Day, March 7th 2024
“The wind bubbled and the magic happened. It was dreamy. The perfect combination of size, tide, and direction allowed for some of the friendliest XXL Cloudbreak I’ve experienced.”
That was Kohl Christensen, talking to Surfline about the last, great Cloudbreak swell. And if anyone can judge, it is the Hawaiian big-wave surfer. He has surfed every major swell at the break in the previous two decades.
The 2024 swell featured one of the waves of the year ridden by Australian Soli Bailey, and by being so early in the year, it was made even more special by the small, committed crew who surfed it.
“Rarely, a swell can far, far exceed expectations and you score the waves of your life,” said Billy Kemper. “Today was one of those special days.”
Back to Black, May 22nd, 2018
Less dreamy, and more intense, the 2018 swell featured two storms doubling up on each other. “The swell was rawer and more jumbled than previous big days with mixed, overlapping swell periods,” said Surfline Forecaster Kevin Wallis.
An all-star cast that included Kelly Slater, Garrett McNamara, Alex Grey, Bill Kemper, Kai Lenny, Nathan Florence, and Koa Rothman flew into Tavarua for the swell. The day started with a tow session under leaden skies, with Ramon Navarro bagging the biggest wave of the day and maybe the biggest tube of all time
As the wind settled, a historic paddle session went down in the afternoon. Kelly Slater caught a wave he called the best he’d ever had at Cloudbreak (no small claim, he’s been coming every year since he was 17), while underground Australian charger Laurie Towner was voted MVP with waves like this.
Perfect 10s, 2015, 2017
Some of the most memorable sessions have gone down at Cloudbreak during the CT events held here since 1997.
In 2013, Kelly Slater put on a masterclass at his favorite wave, winning the event in perfect 8-foot waves and logging three 10-point rides. “The waves are the stars,” he modestly claimed afterwards. Two years later Owen Wright went even better, scoring two perfect 20-point heat totals, one being in the Final.
Lightening Strikes Twice, June 8, 2012
Less than 12 months after what many experts called a once-in-a-lifetime swell for Cloudbreak, the Thundercloud Reef roared into iconic status again.
This swell coincided with a CT event, and when the WSL called the event off due to the dangerous conditions, the world’s best big wave surfers pounced. The WSL did, however, live webcast the session. And so, the epic waves ridden by Dave Wassel, Ian Walsh, Mark Healey, Reef McIntosh, and John John Florence (to name a few) were beamed into the eyeballs and consciousness of surf fans all over the globe.
“It was like 15-18 foot Chopes,” said Ian Walsh afterwards, “but with a window to paddle in and running for what felt like 500 yards. It was the most perfect, big waves I’d ever seen.”
Otherworldly, July 12, 2011
“This was the day everything changed,” said Kohl Christenson. “The conditions were otherworldly. Bluebird. Sunny. No wind. Oil glass. It felt surreal.”
This was the swell where the world’s best surfers realised that massive XL Cloudbreak could be paddled into. The defining image might be Bruce Irons riding a 10’1” gun dubbed the “Pink Pony,” grabbing rail in the biggest, most perfect barrel ever seen. Christensen came close to surfing the best wave of his life (but fell at the end), Ryan Hipwood did so (on a 6’10”), and a SUP wipeout by Garrett McNamara is now legendary. As Kohl said, this was a session that “changed the game.”
Dreamy Scary, Easter 1995
Jon Roseman spent more than two decades as the Managing Director at Tavarua Resort and no one has spent more time in the water or the tube than Jon.
“There’s probably been a dozen or so similar days in the last ten to twenty years that have been really clean,” he told Swellnet when asked to pinpoint specific swells back in 2010. “One crazy one was Easter Day in 1995. We had just started towing out there on the big days. It was probably 20-to-25 feet and not a drop of water out of place or ripple on the face. Really dreamy and scary at the same time. With no one out.”