Cheyne Horan dissects the surf party set to hit the Gold Coast as Cyclone Gita rolls into town
MICK Fanning isn’t the only one feeling oh-so-cool about the massive weekend of surfing about to hit the Coast. Get a taste of what a cyclone swell means to the city’s surfers.
Beaches & Fishing
Don't miss out on the headlines from Beaches & Fishing. Followed categories will be added to My News.
YOU’VE gotta love Cheyne Horan.
For the next few days, a super-sized swell means the former world champion will be forced to shut the business that provides him with an income — and he doesn’t care one little bit.
“I’m a surfer at heart,” he laughs of closing the doors of his Cheyne Horan School of Surf because there will be no beginner waves on the Gold Coast for the foreseeable future.
“Even today the coaches were looking at each other saying ‘Surely it’s too big for beginners’ and I was with them.
“These are our days. It’s too big for beginners. Shut the doors, out we go and surf our brains out.”
Horan is going to be surfing his brains out loads this weekend.
As a monster swell rolls its way towards his home town, the renowned big-wave surfer is like a kid in a candy store, a 57-year-old grommet who can’t sleep because he’s dreaming of what lies ahead.
“We all know it’s going to be great,” Horan says. “Most of the guys are frothing.
“We’re all ready to go. We’ve got our jet skis and equipment ready. We’ve been the same team for 20 years so we have a lot of fun in these swells. Heaps.”
Horan’s team is a posse of five mates who will spend the weekend towing each other into waves so big that landlubbers watching from the beaches and headlands will have their hearts in their mouths.
“We’ve all got each other’s backs,” he says of his crew.
“We take our time. We’re not rushed. You see a lot of cowboys — that’s what we call them — who are rushed, don’t have the right equipment, get in the way.
“This swell is going to be dangerous … Kirra and the Superbank and Snapper (Rocks) are going to be honing. Most of the places will be grinding. Places like Kirra will just be sucking out and spitting barrels.
“We’ve got a lot of sand on the points at the moment, which makes it really shallow. It gets a little bit dangerous as it gets to low tide and guys have to be careful they don’t hit their heads on the bottom because they can break their necks.”
Council’s lifeguarding fraternity echoed such warnings. Make no mistake — this swell is not for the inexperienced. If you don’t know what you’re doing, stay out of the water.
That said, those who do know what they’re doing live for these moments. Indeed, such days are vital for the world’s best professional surfers as they eye off next month’s season-opening Quiksilver Pro.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Kelly (Slater) is already here,” Horan says of the legendary American who owns a property on the southern Coast. “I haven’t called him but he’s a pretty smart guy and this is a vital swell for those guys.
“It’s really going to tune them up for the Quiksilver Pro … you’ll get guys flying in early from Brazil, Hawaii, the US. There will be guys flying in from WA, South Australia, Victoria.
“You’d fly anywhere around the world to ride a swell like this.”
Just like you’d think nothing of shutting down your business to be part of it, hey?
“I’ve caught as many as 50 waves in three hours (using jetskis during swells like this),” Horan says. “That’s a month’s surfing in three hours.
“You do a few of those and you’re ready to take Kelly Slater.”