When a monstrous south swell hit Sydney’s beaches on Saturday, most of the attention turned to Deadmans, where a pack of devotees and chancers were hunting the gurgling slab that breaks around the corner from Ferry Bower. Meanwhile, over at Bronte, Adrian ‘Taco’ Kovacic, tossed himself into the cruel sea all alone, at the wave known affectionately as ‘Cemetery’s’ or ‘Cemo’s’. The spot takes its name from the Waverley cemetery, which is perched on the cliffs above. Fittingly, it’s also the kind of place that can make a surfer wonder if they might be headed for an early grave.
After several epic sessions over the years, Cemo’s has become a celebrated part of eastern suburbs folklore. The Bronte Boardriders had intended to host their annual big wave contest there on Saturday. Although the event is only called on if the waves are huge, after a morning surf check the conditions were deemed too colossal, too unruly and too unsafe to run the contest. Giant swells had joined forces with a high tide, colliding into concrete promenades and spilling over into coastal parks. Around the headland at Bondi, the chief lifeguard had even labelled it too big to put the jet-skis in the water.
When ‘Taco’ checked his social media account and saw the contest had been cancelled he was disappointed. Without checking the waves or seeking a companion to surf with, he grabbed the trusty, red 7’2” he’d bought cheap off Brett Warner (no vests or safety equipment) and rode his moped a few minutes down the road to Bronte. What would follow was a session that arguably put him in the realm of life and death three times – Taco takes up the story…
I was just like no matter how big it is, I want to go out… What I do when the surf’s like that, I don’t like to watch it for too long. So, pretty much as soon as I got down the beach I just got my wetsuit on and I just ran around to the cliffs… A few people were looking at me strangely, like ‘Are you going out there?’
It was really gnarly because I didn’t realise how there was still a bit of east in the swell. It gets really dangerous around there. In a big south swell that’s when we normally surf Cemo’s. The swell pushes past that bit of the keyhole where we jump off. When there’s east in the swell it comes in raw. It comes right in.
And as soon as I jumped off probably some of the biggest sets of the morning came through
As soon as I went down the rocks there was kind of no going back. And it was really high tide. So even the small waves were washing up the rocks really badly. It was the dodgiest jump off I’ve ever done for sure.
I was just like, I’ve got no choice right now. I couldn’t really just run back up the boulders because I had such a big board underneath my arm. And as soon as I jumped off probably some of the biggest sets of the morning came through and I was just like ‘Oh my goodness,’ like if I get caught here, like I’m gonna have to take off my leg rope and just dive as deep as I possibly can because if I get dragged back into the rocks, I might be close to death. Long story short, I just scraped over them…
But then a set came through and semi cleaned me up and I had to bail my board
Cemo’s was just ridiculous. It was just feathering and it was just closing out. And it was unsurfable. So the only way I was going to catch a wave was in between Cemo’s and Bronte and that’s where I kind of tried to sit.
I felt kind of comfortable. Whenever the surf maxes out that’s kind of what I like to do. Just to go out Bronte and see what waves I can get. But I was sitting quite far out and when the waves are that big, the take off spot is like a half a kilometre radius. It’s probably just as hard to be in the spot to catch a wave than actually riding the wave itself.
Before that one wave I did manage to paddle into a couple but there was so much bump and so much wind up the face. Like I just felt like a feather in the wind. I just got blown off my board instantly.
I tried to paddle in a bit because I felt like I was a bitunder-gunned out there. But then a set came through and semi cleaned me up and I had to bail my board. And I was lucky that was the only set that came through at the time and I managed to paddle back out.
When I was sitting the furthest out I was sitting that day I was like, ‘Oh, this has got to be the biggest I’ve seen it.’ I was thinking there was no way they could have run the contest because the grommets would have been out there against their own will and it wasn’t the sort of day when you could just catch a whitewash in.
… Before I got that wave there were actually two sets before that I just missed. And then that kind of put me in a good position for that set, because it pushed me in a little bit. And then I turned around and was like, ‘This is my chance’. And it kind of had a little bit of a cleaner face. I just felt like I was in a good spot and I only had to take a couple of strokes.
It was definitely the biggest wave I’ve ever caught out there for sure. Especially looking at the photos. I’ve never really felt the speed on other waves like that, especially as I was on the biggest board I had. I just felt like I had so much speed going down the face, but the wave just still ran so far ahead of me. Like I just felt like nothing compared to it. So it was like, ‘Yeah, this feels pretty big.’
It took me a good few seconds just to get down the face of it, and then I tried to bottom turn and then go around the section. Then I was like ‘F@#k! there’s no way I can make this one.’ So yeah, I just kind of had to bail.
I was underwater for a while and I was trying to pull up on my leg rope
What really surprised me was just how kind of violent and powerful it was because as soon as the wave hit me, I kind of a lost breath instantly. I tried to relax a little bit and just roll with the punches. But this was different. As soon as I jumped off, the impact of the wave zapped me of oxygen.
I was underwater for a while and I was trying to pull up on my leg rope. When I finally got to the surface, I couldn’t really breathe because there was so much foam. It’s the worst; all that foam from the sewer and the floods and the rain.
I couldn’t breathe. I only got one breath before the next wave came in and that gave me just as bad a drowning.
Within seconds I was dragged 100 meters down the beach. I couldn’t really feel it that much because I was just trying to get the surface. But the boys were saying I got dragged so quickly from out the back to in front of the point between Bronte and Tamarama… Right in front of the rocks.
A chopper came down pretty close to me and was like trying to keep an eye on me and stuff but in hindsight I was just like, yeah it’s cool but they couldn’t have really done anything.
At one point I had my feet on the sand and then I just got swept off again and just dragged straight back out
You can’t really paddle with half a board. I was just trying to keep afloat with half a board with all that foam on the face of the water coming into Tamarama… It took me a good 10-15 minutes to come into Tamma because there would be a big surge going up soon but then when it would go back out it would be like a river. I was getting dragged back in front of the rocks again and I ended up having to paddle back out at Tama and I just tried to paddle north as much as I could. At one point I had my feet on the sand and then I just got swept off again and just dragged straight back out… I’ve never seen the water like that. By the time I got in, I only had to take a few steps and I was on the promenade.
I was looking at the lifeguards and they were putting up their hands and I just gave them a thumbs up to say ‘I’m alright’. I had a bloke come in and say ‘Are you a Ok ?’ and I said ‘I’m sweet’.
So yeah, I went straight to the bathroom and stuck two fingers down my throat.
When I came in I spoke to one of the volunteer lifeguards guys and I said, ‘I just swallowed so much foam’ and he said I should go try and chunder it up. So that’s what I did. I’d been hearing about a few people getting bad gastro from the water and being sick. So yeah, I went straight to the bathroom and stuck two fingers down my throat.
I was a bit speechless after it. I had a news crew come up to me and they were trying to interview me and I was struggling to string a sentence together about it. I was just so exhausted of energy and I swallowed a lot of foam. And they tried to get words out of me and I just tried to do my best to string a sentence a together.
It’s kind of taken a while for it to sink in a little bit because there was just so much going on that day
I think I’ve got some expectations on myself because then I went home and started going online and I saw a few of the guys at Deadmans getting crazy barrels. I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh how didn’t I think of that?’ but then when I put it back in to perspective I was kind of stoked.
It’s kind of taken a while for it to sink in a little bit because there was just so much going on that day. I’d do it again for sure. I’ve already been thinking like it’s gonna be hard to get it as a big. These kinds of swells only happen about once or twice a year, but that’s got to be the biggest I’ve seen it.
