On trail of a monster
FROM surfing the biggest wave ever by an Aussie woman to helping restore reefs and creating art, Felicity Palmateer is surfing the waves of success.
The 22-year-old Burleigh surfer and artist is about to head off to the Seychelles to learn about reef restoration.
When she’s not surfing, she’s working on her art, having held her first solo exhibition this year.
Palmateer said she could not believe all the media attention and hype she received after riding what’s claimed to be the biggest wave ever surfed by an Australian woman.
She had only a couple of days notice before she flew to her birth state of Western Australia for what is being called “the swell of a decade”.
She borrowed a 15kg tow-in surfboard from Gold Coast lifeguard James Watson at 7pm on her way to the airport earlier this month.
Five hours later she was on the back of a jet-ski heading for a reef break named “Cow Bombie” 2km off the coast at Gracetown.
“Because there was so much time between waves (40 minutes) and it’s the open ocean we drifted back into the impact zone,” she said.
“Then this set came up and I wore three 30-foot (10m) waves on the head.”
After being thrown around underwater like “a rag doll” she was ready for anything the ocean could throw at her.
“It’s crazy but that introduction was the best thing that could have happened because after that I really wanted to get a good one,” she said.
She snagged four waves including her record-breaker.
“The drop down the wave went on forever, it’s different to any other wave I have surfed, when they broke it sounded like a bomb going off,” she said.
Palmateer’s manager J.J. Jenkins called Layne Beachley, seven-time women’s surfing world champion and female tow-in surfing pioneer, to confirm the record.
“She said she was towed into some big waves in Hawaii but there were no photographs and she said Felicity’s was probably the biggest,” Mr Jenkins said.
“It was inspiring out there, big waves is something I want to pursue,” Palmateer said.