After a career hauling a jetski from around the bottom half of Australia, South Coast underground charger Paul Morgan garaged the ski last year, strapped some serious chunks of foam on the roofracks and set off on a mission to paddle the kind of waves usually reserved for power-assisted surfers.

“Surfing full-time I had to get photos, so we were towing all the time” said Paul when we called him up at home in Ulladulla. “I just got sick of it. We were taking the ski everywhere and I just wanted to go surfing.”

Working with Dylan Longbottom and big wave gun specialist Kirk Birke, he kitted up with an 8’2”, a 9”6 and a 10’2” and started watching the charts.

"The 8’2 is my paddle-board for [the reef at the start of the video]. That wave was last year. I started towing out there first. I’ve been surfing it for a while now. Paddling into it was the best challenge.”

Together with other prominent big-wave specialists recently converted from power to paddle, Morgan spent much of last year waiting for the perfect conditions required to paddle-surf waves of this calibre. 

They arrived last summer, when a huge, clean swell at Cow Bombie set the stage for an epic paddle session with Jamie Mitchell and Alfy Cater, as seen in Surfing World magazine. 

“I’d only been out there once before,” said Paul. “It was 30 knot onshore and horrible. We were waiting for the right day. It took a couple of years.“ 

And the right equipment. “The Cow Bombie board [seen in video] has a lot of meat in it just for padding’s sake. A 10’2 is massive. If you jumped on it you’d freak out - just the area and the foam that’s in it. It’s harder to ride that you think if you haven’t done it before.” 

After headed to Hawaii last season, Morgan found himself sitting on a stack of heavywater footage from both hemispheres so he decided to throw together this clip. Enjoy.