All In

When Cloudbreak, one of the world’s heaviest waves, looks set to rock with wind and waves, you can be sure one man has his eye on sailing it – Jason Polakow. Teaming up with the Brazilian powerhouse, Marcilio Browne, the duo packed their bags for an ‘all in’ strike mission to the legendary Fijian break; this is their story.

- Jason Polakow, Marcilio Browne 

JASON POLAKOW

Last year I missed out on one of the biggest swells ever in Fiji and I did not want to miss another swell heading that way. Looking at the WAM chart, it was easy to see that Fiji was going to get hit hard with a good size swell and plenty of wind on the peak of the swell. I was already in Australia visiting my parents, from where it’s only a 4 hour flight to Fiji. Since my trip to Indonesia 2 seasons ago I have not scored so many great waves, so I was craving that adrenaline rush you get when dropping into a bomb.

I put out a few emails to the boys to see if anyone was keen. The next day I got a call from Marcilio Browne, a.k.a. ‘Braw’, asking if he could join me. A trip chasing good waves with ‘Braw’ was always on my to-do list, so I was more than happy to take him with me. ‘Braw’ is one of the top downthe-line wave sailors in the world, if not the best, so I was really looking forward to watching him sail down there.

We both knew it was only going to be one epic day of good waves and wind, so we were up at 5 a.m. and in the boat heading up to Cloudbreak by 5:45 a.m. It can be surprisingly windy first light at Cloudbreak and this day did not disappoint. We arrived with 15 to 18 knots of wind side-offshore and solid 8 foot surf. As always when I see amazing waves, I totally went nuts and we both started scrambling for our gear.