David Blount from T-Bay, along with Californian Joe McNulty, represented Ireland in the 1999Reef\ISA World Big Wave Contest. The comp was held in Todos Santos, an island 12 miles off the coast of Baja, Mexico. He was drafted in as a replacement for Joe's brother Terence McNulty (who could not compete due to injury). The 2 McNulty brothers are hardened veterans of countless epic sessions at Todos and performed heroically in the HUGE conditions off the 1998 Todos comp to place second. Here is Dave's account of the 1999 contest.

The first I heard of this contest was in Hawaii during the epic 1998 El Nino season. Word had filtered pretty quickly to the North Shore that the ISA contest at Todos had been run in huge surf, that Taylor Knox had caught the K2 wave and that Ireland, represented by the McNulty's had placed second, beating Hawaii, the US, Australia et al. Having known Terence and Joe from our participation in the worlds in Huntington in 96 I was stoked at their success. However the reality of what they'd done didn't hit me until nearly a year later.

The same contest was scheduled for Feb 1999, with a 2 week waiting period. It was about November when the coach of the Irish team, Peter Cooke, approached me about competing in it. Terence had buggered his shoulder and a replacement was needed. I think it was more a case of looking for volunteers than selecting from a list!
There were a number of reasons in why I was keen to go. First and foremost, the chance to represent your country is always an honour and I jump at every chance to do so. Then there is the opportunity to get out in possibly some huge surf amongst some of the best big wave riders in the world- sooo much you could learn from it. Add in the factor that Todos in most circles is considered the easiest of the big 3 (Waimea and Mavericks completing), and that it was a La Nina year and up till then no big swells had hit that winter…. I figured that it would be well manageable.

Both of the last 2 myths were pretty soon put to pasture though….. I got a hold of the video footage of the 1998 comp. for preparation…. 2 words, immortalised by Miley Byrne… Holy God…. Anyone who has watched that video without getting a hollow pit in their stomach has never been in the ocean with sizeable pieces of water moving.
…so much for Todos being an easy big wave. The awe at what Joe and Terence had done in 98 was now beginning to multiply.

The second arrived later, a few days before I was due to depart in the form of a big red coloured storm on the FNOC WAM. A friend from California phoned me saying it was the biggest storm since the el nino year…. Looks like it was gonna get big. My only consolation now was that I was probably the fittest that I'd ever been, after spending the previous few months bike sprinting 20 miles a day, swimming 7km a week and surfing at every available opportunity.

Threw my boards in the bag, jumped on at Dublin and jumped out at LAX. Bumped into the French team (Che Guevarra, Thierry Domenech and their coach Francise) as I was getting picked up by Joe. They were heading straight down to Mexico to get some practise in, Joe and I were going to hang in San Clemente, as Joe was limited in the time he could get off work.

The next 2 days were spent enjoying myself, surfing Blacks and Upper Trestles with Joe's roommate Barnum, ever conscious of the approaching swell. On the evening of the second day, Barnum & I arrived back to find Brock Little in Joe's living room. (-OhmyGodBarnumThatIsBrockLittleTheresBrockLittle-). "Hey Brock, how's the crack?", "Hey, you must be Dave, Hi, Hey listen, the contest is called on for tomorrow, get your boards together, Joe'll be back in 10 minutes". So, there we were, myself, Joe McNulty and Brock Little, driving south through Tijuana with the sun setting, burning everything dusty orange, Carlos Santana providing the soundtrack, to surf Todos, with a macking groundswell bearing down from the NW….. couldn't help but reflect on the good fortune I'd had to get in such a place.

Arrived in Ensenada, a busy port\fishing town, the place where all the competitors were staying and where our boat was to be launched from. Spent the night in a hotel nestled in the hustle and jive of Ensenada. During dinner, discovered from the French coach Francise that the surf that day's been about 10-12ft and that Sean Collins, the SurfLine forecaster, was calling for 15-18ft for the following day. Nice, I thought, ideal, a little bigger than I'd previously surfed, but not survival material huge.

After dinner came the briefing from the safety crew. The K-38 water safety crew were being employed for this comp and did an outstanding job last year. They use jet skis to get into the impact zone and help out anyone who is in a bad situation. As much as I am a believer in the mantra of that if you cant get yourself out and back and do the business under your own steam, then you shouldn't be out there, I gotta admit that it was a comfort knowing that these guys were buzzing around keeping an eye on us. Shawn from K-38 was briefing us on how we were going to be picked up in case of needing assistance, about how the first thing to do was to take off your leash and ditch your board. At this point Joe (whose 9'6 I was using in the comp.), leans over and mutters…. "That board is worth about 600 bucks, you aint gonna be using that rescue crew"…. So much for the comfort of a rescue crew!

After a good nights sleep, it was a pre-dawn start, loaded up everyone, competitors, boards, judges, media and officials on the boat (a 60ft big game fishing boat) and motored out the 12 miles to Todos Santos. It is hard to tell the swell size as the islands shadow the swell until you round them, so I was amping the whole hour it took to get there, butterflies being multiplied by the smell of marine diesel and the spewing of some seasick passengers. As we rounded the tiny island and killers (as the main break at Todos is called) came into view, it was obvious that the swell predictions were a bit overstated. Double-overhead waves, with possible triple overhead sets, were unloading on the point in sheet glass conditions. After some delibration, they decided to push on with the contest at the buoys were indicating that the swell was on the rise.

At this stage, with things starting to happen, all the nerves and apprehension drain away, just want to get wet and get a few waves! Managed to get out for a few warm up waves before they started. Even though it was not very big the thickness of the wave and the open ocean speed at Todos are formidable. Poto shows some Polynesian aloha by sharing a few with me.

Joe is out in the first heat, with Cheyne Horan, Brock Little and Antonio Gamas of Portugal. The ocean went through a long lull for most of the heat but it looked as though it was Joe and Cheyne going through from my reckoning. Next up myself, out with Elijah young of Hawaii, Paul Paterson from Oz and Miguel Ruivo from Portugal. The biggest set so far arrived at the heat start and I managed to snag one. The swell had definitely started to pulse through more consistently now. Got caught inside on the way back out by an even bigger one, but managed to get under it OK. On my next wave I dropped in on someone (later found out it was Miguel), but figured no big shakes as we'd been told that they were not scoring drop-ins. Caught 2 more before the hooter with the last of them being definitely bigger than anything else I'd seen so far. Came back to the boat pretty happy that I'd done my best.

Results started coming through, Joe'd gotten 3rd…he was kinda bummed, me more so, I'd figured he'd definitely progressed. He'd been watching my heat though and reckoned Paul had won it and I was second. I was stoked beyond words but brought back to earth when it was announced Paul 1st, Miguel 2nd, Elijah 3rd and me 4th. Brock who'd been up with the judges, then returned and it turned out that they had penalised me for the drop-in, otherwise I'd have come 2nd and progressed.

Nothing to do now, but watch the rest of the comp… The swell continued to build throughout the day but unfortunately so too did the wind, turning a finely groomed piste into a mogul run. A few heavy wipeouts went down, most notably Che Guevarra of France, who snapped his 9 footer, got held down and dragged a distance before being picked up by a ski.

The standout surfers of the contest were Taylor Knox and Paul Paterson who were really laying down some serious rail turns on waves that were difficult to even make. However, as in 1998, when 2 Brazilian darkhorses won, this year it would also be 2 dark horses, the South African team of Cas Collier and Ian Armstrong. They are 2 little known rastafarians from Cape Town who'd been taking on the heaviest that the southern ocean could throw at them for years and were now finally getting some recognition for it. The 2 of them consistently snagged big, steep waves from deep. They ran out popular winners, as underdogs usually are. (There is a profile on them in the Surfers Journal volume 10- number5, and is a fascinating read).

There were no takers for a free surf after the event due to the mess the wind had made of the waves, so it was back to the hotel in Ensenada for the presentation dinner. The stoke and camaraderie amongst everyone was epic, and I spent a great night drinking and carousing with everyone involved in the contest.

Next day it was back to the old Us of A and from there to Ireland.

Looking back now on the contest, my only regret is that it wasn't bigger. It would've been an ideal opportunity, with the crew that was around, to ride waves bigger than I previously had. However the memories of the people I met, the dusty desert of Baja, the metallic blue of the deep water waves hitting Todos and the sound of the massive boulders being rattled around on the bottom as they broke, will be with me for a long time to come.

I cant finish this without giving my thanks to a number of people, first off Joe & Terence, for the friendship and guidance given (you gotta add barnum and the whole San Clemente crew also), Peter Cooke for having faith in me and T-Bay surf club for helping out with the finances for the trip. It was an experience for which I will be forever grateful.