Surfer Profile: Sean Holmes

Highlights:
three times finalist at Red Bull Big Wave Africa and winner in 2000. I have enjoyed some great sessions at numerous big wave spots around the globe but never really competitively.

It was a big wave in every sense of the word. Dungeons the wave was still something new, and no one really knew what was going on out there in the spooky, shifting line-up. People had been suffering some brutal wipe-outs in a bid to get a few big ones, and others had been backing out of bombs that looked too critical but turned out to be goodies. It was a lucky packet out there. Mutant waves alongside corduroy perfection, but which ones to take? Which ones to ride?

Something pushed him over the ledge of that wave. It was a steep one, and a long way down to the trough, but something got him over the ledge. As soon as his mind made that decision – to paddle as hard as he could and try his hardest to catch that wave – he had won the battle with himself. In fact, that split-second decision and resultant drop down the face won not only the battle within, it won Sean the first crown at the Red Bull Big Wave Africa in 2000. It also made him into a big wave surfer, garnered heaps of respect from big wave circles the world over, and made him a repeat contestant in the event from then onwards.

“What drives me in big surf? That’s easy. It’s really just the enjoyment of pushing my limitations and just being in the ocean when she’s all powered up. It’s an amazing sensation – completely humbling when you’re in the water and the surf is huge. Big talk is quickly turned into whispers.”

“My biggest fear? I never want to lose the sensation of butterflies, the tingle in your veins, the energy of the universe.”

Sean might be a WCT-standard ripper, a world champion-beater at the Billabong pro at Jeffrey’s Bay and a barrel riding phenomenon at the Quiksilver Goodwave in Durban, but when it comes too the big stuff he’s no slouch and knows his way around the Dungeons playing field. He also knows how to get down the big ones, which makes him a contender at the Red Bull Big Wave Africa every time it runs.