This is an account of an epic session way back in 1988 when Cyclone Bola came ripping through New Zealand. The entire east coast was completely maxed out, and the met office was calling the swell at 6 metres. Scary shit. So what are ya supposed to do in these sort of conditions? Stay home? Hell no.

Me and a few mates piled into a couple of cars and headed north up the east coast (I was living in Auckland at the time). After checking out a few spots along the way that were just totally out of control, we were heading up the coast road towards Pakiri and had stopped at Leigh for a quick feed. We decided we'd stop in and check out Goat Island Bay on the way past, I mean, the place is a marine reserve that's normally flat as a pancake even when Pakiri is hitting 5 foot, but maybe some of the swell was making it in there... maybe.

That turned out to be one damn good move. We pulled up above the bay on the 'cliff' and freaked.. this huge swell was wrapping right around the island and big clean waves were peeling across the bay, and NOBODY WAS OUT! There was a massive peak sucking up off a shelf off Goat Island itself that was downright evil. It's not so clear on these photos, but the trough of those waves off the island was sucking several feet below sea level as the wave broke. Scary.

I managed to snap these few photos from the top of the cliff before joining my mates out in the waves, but I'm telling ya, it was all time out there. It was bigger than what it looks in these pics; I guess it's because of the angle I took the photos from that makes it look a little smaller. The pitching lips were pretty heavy and tended to drag you all the way in if you got caught inside, but the faces were big, open and amazingly clean and were peeling off perfectly, just lined up and waiting for us to carve. Considering the churning mess that we had seen everywhere else, we couldn't believe how good it was here. Stoke.

We had a hell session out there that day, certainly one that I'll never forget. The boys went home at days end with bloodshot eyes, surfed out bodies, and great big stoked grins on our faces. Ever since, I always make sure to stop in to check out Goat Island when I'm up that way, just in case...