Alex Gray is a luminary of the tube

Alex Gray got to rule this session at Cloudbreak as the alpha male a few weeks back. Little did he know that he was ever-so-close to being joined by Kelly Slater and John John Florence. On a waveless Gold Coast enduring the Quik Pro, the WSL held an emergency meeting with the surfers about a possible waiting period extension. Once granted, JJF and KS were busy hunting flights from Australia’s eastern seaboard to coincide with perfect Cloudbreak for two days and then return home to surf the Quik Pro. The problem is all flights leave in the morning and the meeting didn’t finish until 10am. When they’d missed all flights that day (and the swell hit Fiji the next day), there were even quotes coming in from a private jet company to charter a plane from Coolangatta direct to Nadi. Somewhere between being stranded in Fiji when a cyclone hit and/or eight hours flying at $8k an hour plus accommodation for pilots, the trip fell over. And, Alex Gray got to rule with waves like this.