Brutus The Wave Maker

No way is this the future of surfing, but shit sure is a whole lotta fun. Cliff Hobgood, Taj Burrow and cover hero Jules Wilson enjoy one-foot dream rides on the once peaceful Clarence River. Photos: John Respondek & Mark Onorati Words by Ron Blakey The elder Webber brothers, Monty and Greg, are the brains behind trawler surfing. Y’see, back in 2002 Mont and Gregory released a film titled Liquid Time. The idea for the flick was simple. While Greg skippered a small fishing boat up and down the river, Mont filmed the wake as it reached the shoreline and barreled on the muddy shallows. Anyway, watching this Liquid Time film you couldn’t help but dream how delightful it would be if you were three inches tall and able stand in those little caves. While most of us fantasized, the Webber men came up with a far more logical solution: Bigger boat = Bigger wake. They hired a local fisherman and had him drive his trawler at top speed close enough to the bank to create a wave that was jsurfable, kinda like Snapper on a knee-high day, far from great but still fun. When Stab spotted youtube footage of Mont and Greg’s younger bro Will paddling into a wake, getting to his feet and then weaving across the thing like a coked-up Adriano de Souza we thought, if Will can rack up a 7.5 on this hot little spinner a couple of A-list professionals will go completely nutso. So we started planning this surf trip.