Meet Ledge Bandit Sam Wrench

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I went surfing with Wrenchy one day because we’re mates and that’s what mates do. We hit a little reef close to where he grew up. I’d never surfed the wave before but there were some really nice tubes. They were big and hollow and pretty bloody terrifying truth be told, but not so scary that you’re totally shitting your daks.

It’s a pretty well known secret wave, if that makes sense. It’s not a crazy, crazy slab, but because I was a bit lost out there I spent a fair bit of time trying to find a good entry. I was doing my best to take Sam’s lead, watch how he was getting into them and learn it all because he’d obviously surfed there a bunch. Well, let me tell ya, the guy had the place on lock. He would pick these incredible lines and just angle in on what looked to me like kamikaze sections. The full underground hero just packing it. I always knew Wrenchy ripped, ridiculously well, but this day he was completely blowing my mind.

One of the drops he took that day I’ll never forget. It was crazy. Everyone paddled out to get in position for this bomb set and quickly found themselves out of position. Wrenchy didn’t move. He held his nerve and his ground and at the very last second he spun and went. He knew it was gonna be a sick double up. The thing drained and surged underneath him and as he jumped to his feet he was completely under the lip. He did the big gut churning freefall drop, landed on his tail, jammed on the back foot pivot and just stood bolt upright straight into the tube. There was no room for error and no error was made. The way he pulled up into the thing was mental. I remember thinking, “Oh my god, I would have been completely destroyed on that wave!” Man it was a sight to behold and still blows me out just thinking about it.

After that he flew down the line past me in the tube and kicked out, kinda smiling but pretty chilled about the whole deal. Classic reaction. That’s how it is with guys who surf these slabs for nothing but the pure thrill of it. Surf fans might not even know that some of these guys are legitimately some of the best surfers in the world but I’m telling you, on any given day when the surf is that serious any one of these guys can explode your brain.

As far as the pecking order goes, Sam’s probably up there, I reckon. Maybe not top of the line at that particular wave, but he’s earned his spot there, he’s surfed the wave enough to know where he wants to be, who wants what and which ones he can go. He’d be in the top three for sure. There’re maybe a couple of older guys that are a bit angrier than him, haha.

I don’t know what the wave is normally like. Crew were saying “it’s not that good today,” but I thought it was pumping. I was blown away by how good the wave was. They were saying “Nah it gets way better than this,” and I was just thinking “How?” There were sick tubes and you can come out of, and do a couple of turns. How do you top that? I had a ball out there, it took me a few waves but I clicked in eventually.

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