Registered or Premium Member? LOG IN  |  Become a Member: SIGN UP
XXL DUNGEONS SUPER-SESSION
SURF NEWS XXL DUNGEONS SUPER-SESSION
August 12, 2008
18390 visits
The first rays of light are breaking through a cold, angry, Cape Town sky. For the past week, we've been monitoring what is to potentially become one of the biggest swells of this decade to hit the Cape Peninsula. With a giant lumbering his way to towards us, we anxiously stand outside the car awaiting our first glimpses of the Dungeons line-up.
 
The ocean is alive and stirring with a cohesive nervous energy. Through the mist we see giant fishing trawlers frantically making haste for port. Swarms of gulls are in a frenzy diving for the discarded remains of last night's big catch.
Dull bellows and barks from Seal Island echo through the bay. An all-too-familiar stench of rotten bull kelp, seal crap, fish remains, and salted air overwhelm the senses. Despite the commotion, an eerie stillness remains in the air.

In the distance we can make out a massive black shadow careening its way towards the towering cliffs of the Sentinel Mountain. The swell we're watching moves in slow motion, feeling every contour of the uneven reef below. As it nears the lineup, it seemingly triples in size before plummeting headlong into the darkness below. A deafening crack splits the air, and the roll of thunder shortly follows.
"It's already massive, but the swell isn't supposed to peak until this evening? How big is it actually going to get?"
--Twiggy Baker
We sit motionless as two more waves follow in succession, each slightly bigger than the last, peeling down the reef in J-bay fashion. I take a few deep breaths as my stomach tightens with anxiety. Nobody says a word, but subconsciously we know what one another are thinking.

Finally Twiggy turns around and breaks the silence. He speaks the exact thoughts that have been racing through our minds. "It's already massive, but the swell isn't supposed to peak until this evening? How big is it actually going to get?" We pile back into the car, make our way down the winding, slippery road to the harbor and gear up to launch.

And so it begins.

***
Surfline's Kevin Wallis breaks down the swell that hit Dungeons on August 9th: This exceptionally large southwest groundswell came about thanks to the marriage of a compact, but very intense, low adjacent to a vast ridge of high pressure in the mid latitudes of the South Atlantic on August 7th-8th. The pressure gradient between the features set up fetch of 50-55 knot wind for a period of 36 hours, which was well aimed at the west coast of South Africa. The resulting 20-25' deepwater swell rapidly filled in and slammed the exposed reefs, such as Dungeons, throughout the day on Saturday.
SURFLINE HOME PAGE
MORE SURF NEWS