REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN,

Thursday, February 22, 2007

ON the day Damon Eastaugh tackled what was believed to be the biggest wave ever ridden in Australia, he had just seen another surfer come up from the water spitting out his teeth. But that did not stop the 43year-old West Australian winemaker riding it without a glitch. Eastaugh’s hair-raising ride near Margaret River in Western Australia on July 5, 2006 earned him the $20,000 Big Wave Award for the biggest single ride in Australia and New Zealand. The judges estimated the wave’s height at between 48 and 52 feet (14.6-15.8m). It was the second triumph for Eastaugh who also collected the award in 2004, but he admitted he was lucky to come through the session unscathed. “It was one of those days where nothing went wrong for me,” he said. “I didn’t have any wipeouts. Every wave I made. “But I did see some pretty large scale wipeouts. It was pretty amazing to watch people go down on waves of that size and come up.” After being towed out 3km from the shore to the deep water reef known as Cow Bombie, Eastaugh joined about 20 surfers attempting to conquer the giant waves for about five hours. Fellow nominee Paul Patterson was among the unlucky ones early in the morning. “Paul got a wave and he fell and he actually got his teeth clenched together really hard from the impact,” said Eastaugh. ‘‘And when he came up he was spitting the teeth out of his mouth and that kind of made me feel a bit like we had a serious day ahead.’’