Jack Freestone And The Joys Of Cloudbreak Foam, Fiji

“I was only at Cloudbreak for 20 minutes this day,” says photographer Dave Nilsen of the session you see pictured here. “It was perfect in the morning and then the swell bumped up and it got kind of too big to hit the ledge and was more mushy breaking in between reefs.” And that’s the nature of Cloudbreak, where we find Mr Jack Freestone in this moment – the windows are small and you’ve gotta pounce when you can. Jack suffered a 25th finish at J-Bay, by the hand of a blistering Josh Kerr, who clocked an 18.06 combined total in their round two heat (Jack’s 15.26 would’ve won him a good amount of other heats in the round, but… that ain’t how it works). So, the rookie decided to swing past Cloudbreak with good pal Mitch Coleborn – not a terrible idea, considering the next World Tour event is at Teahupoo, and experience in left reefbreak barrels is something every rookie needs more of.