Watch: Benji Brand And Josh Moniz Score Quintessential Cloudbreak

It’s true, Cloudbreak appears perfect in video form. But in reality it’s a tricky, misleading beast of a wave. 

The good ones look like closeouts, the bad ones look like good ones, and the good ones occasionally do close-out – at least for the 99-percenters among us. 

Within the coveted 1% reside professional surfers like Josh Moniz. Josh was groomed on Oahu, and thanks to his super-dad Tony, was acquainted with Mother Pipeline at a very young age. As a result, Josh’s pigdog approach has become worth studying with a freshly shaven Ticonderoga in hand.

He is an expert in the tube and no one could tell us otherwise. 

But then there’s the 1% of the 1% – guys who not only master tube-riding through years of international exposure, but who truly immerse themselves in the pursuit of Nature’s Womb, casting aside most typical human behaviors, relationships, and occupations in the process. 

Some call them tube pigs, others call them tub sluts, but right now we’re calling him Benji Brand.

After putting on a winter-long Houdini act at Pipeline this season – complete with behind-the-curtain escapes and lengthy submersions – Benji brought his unmistakable tube hunch to Fiji, where he frolicked at his “favorite wave” [Cloudbreak] for a solid week. From four-to-ten foot, Benji put on a clinic at the quintessentially hollow, surprising rippable left-hand reef-point, sending his mate Josh back to the boat in pursuit of a consolatory PB&J.  

All of which points (again) to Benji being one of the best tuberiders in the world right now.

Are we wrong?