Big Wave Surfing: 25-Foot ‘Pure Evil’ Slab and a Champion’s Sabbatical Expose a Sport at a Crossroads
On a day when a storm sat close off the coast of Western Australia and whipped up 25-footers onto a distant reef, big wave surfing moved from spectacle to existential risk: the slab known as The Right produced “some of the biggest, thickest barrels on the planet, ” Tim Bonython wrote, and he described the wave as “dark, raw… almost evil. ” That portrait — a rare, violent break that “only breaks a handful of times each year” — frames a wider question about who chases these waves and why.
How does Big Wave Surfing turn ‘pure evil’ at The Right?
Verified fact: Tim Bonython wrote that The Right is “one of the scariest waves in the world, ” a Western Australian slab that wakes rarely but, when it does, becomes “pure chaos. ” On the day Bonython described, a storm close to the coast produced 25-foot waves on a reef far out to sea. He characterized the wave as producing “thick barrels, ” and said the place is “suitable only for those with a few screws loose. ” Bonython added that “sometimes the surfers win. Sometimes the ocean does. “
Informed analysis: Those details show a pattern: the combination of size, reef topography and infrequency concentrates danger. A slab that “breaks a handful of times each year” offers limited windows for preparedness, training and rescue planning; when conditions align they deliver sudden, extreme force. The language used by an eyewitness like Bonython — “dark, raw… almost evil” — underscores that the physical attributes of the wave create an environment where routine safety assumptions can fail.
Why is a world champion skimmer stepping away to chase slabs?
Verified fact: Lucas Fink announced a sabbatical from the United Skim Tour, saying he will take a year off from competition to chase swells and grow the sport in Brazil. Fink has racked up four skimboarding world titles in a row and has ridden Jaws, Maverick’s, and Nazaré on his small, finless boards. He identified Teahupo’o as a new frontier he wants to try and said he is “keen to experiment. ” He also noted that competing kept him away from Southern Hemisphere swells and that pausing contests frees him to travel to Asia, Australia, Mexico and Tahiti, while also spending more time at home surfing slabs in Rio de Janeiro and working on a new skimboarding e-commerce platform.
Verified fact: Fink said he did not burn out on competing, that he took two years off during the COVID-19 pandemic, returned in 2022 and subsequently won each season, and that he has battled for world titles against riders such as Blair Conklin. He referenced other skimmers’ precedents in big-wave locations: Brad Domke successfully rode Teahupo’o in 2015.
Informed analysis: Fink’s move reframes incentive structures in high-risk wave sports. For an athlete who has repeatedly won titles, stepping away from competition to pursue rare, dangerous slabs suggests that prestige, challenge and the creative fulfillment of “experimenting” can outweigh the institutional rewards of a tour. That shift has implications for how athletes prioritize risk, how tours schedule events relative to global swell seasons, and how emerging disciplines like skimboarding position themselves amid the existing big-wave ecosystem.
What should the public know about risk, culture and accountability in these waves?
Verified fact: Observers of The Right note that it “only breaks a handful of times each year, ” that large slabs can be “hairy, ” and that “sometimes the surfers pay the price. ” Fink has linked his choices to both professional timing and the growth of his sport, noting that skimboarding remains dwarfed by surfing but has expanded through short-form video visibility.
Informed analysis: Taken together, the accounts of a near-mythic slab and a champion leaving competition illuminate three tensions that demand public attention. First: scarcity of events increases stakes when a wave “wakes up, ” compressing risk into narrow windows. Second: athlete incentives — whether the prestige of titles or the allure of rare swells — steer behavior in ways that formal competition structures may not anticipate. Third: cultural glorification of taming extreme waves can obscure practical needs for transparent safety planning from tour bodies such as the United Skim Tour and from teams and athletes who operate in these remote settings.
Accountability and next steps: The record here is clear on what happened and who said what; what is less clearly documented is how event organizers, athlete managers and local safety coordinators prepare for the sporadic but extreme episodes described. The public should press for clearer disclosures about safety protocols, emergency capacity and the decision-making that sends competitors and free riders into slabs that “turn dark, raw… almost evil. ” Until those disclosures are standard, the choices of athletes like Lucas Fink to chase slabs rather than contest points will continue to expose tensions at the heart of big wave surfing.
