I will always remember the day we got the invite, a standard day banging out emails and helping customers to choose the right board. It was 5pm on Tuesday the 21^st of January, the Americans had just arrived at work on the West coast I guess and there it was, the email that would cause excitement and apprehension in almost equal measure!

Its framed on our wall in the office:

Hi Ian/Roger

Good news guys! To show our appreciation for all the hard work you guys put into Firewire over the years, the FW team would like to offer you the rare opportunity in joining them at the Surf Ranch on the 5th of March  As you already know, unfortunately only one person per store can come. So the plan would be that the one missing out this time will join next time, either in October or the following year.

The details are below:

• 5th March 2020 is the day at the Ranch. We will drive up from the Firewire HQ on the morning of 4th March or we could arrange a pick up from Orange County/LA area as well. We will return after the session in the evening of 5th March (back to Carlsbad or we could arrange reasonable drop off as well).
• We will cover accommodation up by the Ranch (Tachi Palace) the night before and for dinner, and the entire day at the Ranch.
• We will go over more details closer to the time. But just to give you an idea of how it typically goes:

Luckily for me Roger had booked to go skiing and couldn’t cancel without losing his money so no need for arm wrestling or a drinking contest (both of which I would have won anyway) I was going to Lemoore CA. After a brief discussion with the boss it was decided a family road trip was in order, take our boys out of school and explore. The planning began in earnest

Road Trip

We flew into San Francisco with a grand plan to do a loop of the North Californian coast and then head back up to the Ranch and then on to Yosemite and then home again.

So it began San Francisco, on to Rockaway beach then Monterrey, Carmel, see friends in San Carlos, Half Moon Bay and then drive the Big Sur. An amazing few days of enormous dinners, motels, and super friendly Americans.

The surf? It was enormous all the way down the coast, a couple of people in at Ocean beach in San Fran and that was it, no one else in the water!

Trip highlights were Mavericks, you can feel the sheer power of the place even though it was barely breaking at 12 feet+, Half Moon Bay is a very cool town. The local surf shop has a collection of Jeff Clarks boards that he has surfed at Mavs, hard to comprehend the thickness, multiple leash plugs and length for anyone who never really surfs much above head height!

The Big Sur is described somewhere as the 8^th wonder of the world, not wrong it is mind blowingly beautiful and the scale of it is staggering, well worth a look. A day exploring and then it was time to head to the main event..

Heres a photo of a playful day at the big wave coliseum mavericks

The Ranch      

The two nights prior to the Ranch were pretty sleepless, not knowing what to expect, worrying about not catching a wave or falling on every one haunted me. I’ve been surfing for 20 years at a very average standard so the prospect of tackling the waves we’ve all seen on insta and facebook was fairly petrifying.

The drive up to Lemoore where the Ranch is built is one that meanders through hills and then plains of huge farms growing goodness knows what, again the scale of these is hard to get your head round.

Lemoore itself is a pretty desolate place, a main street lined with every fast food outlet you can imagine and on the outskirts the Tachi palace casino and resort where we were booked to stay by the kind team at Firewire.

It’s a huge, and I mean huge Casino complex with pools etc there is a gambling opportunity at every turn and you’re allowed to smoke indoors, the locals take that as some kind of challenge to smoke and gamble as fast as possible.

The night before the Ranch the Firewire team and invited guests met for dinner in the casino.

The Firewire guys included Chuy Reyna, Mark Price, ex pro surfers who still rip, and the guy from the Shredshow, Chris. The overseas guests included guys from the Canaries, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Sweden, a very cosmopolitan bunch, every one was a little nervous about the next day.

The tense mood was broken when John John Florence sauntered by with his brother Nathan and manager/coach Ross Williams, my eldest bot screamed “its John John” he then grabbed me to pursue John John to get a photo but alas he disappeared into the throng.

Dinner done, beer consumed and successful attempt at tracking John John down and it was time to sleep.

A 6.15am meet and a then a 1 minute drive to the Ranch and we were on. When you drive in the sheer scale of the place hits you, the pool is enormous, way bigger than Snowdonia or Bristol and fairly intimidating.

The excellent staff then ran us through the safety stuff and the order of play. The order of surfing was put up and I was hugely relieved not to be in the first round of  people to surf.

The jet ski driver, James who is a total legend saw I was looking terrified and suggested I come out of the jet ski to see the waves close up and first hand, I did and it was a huge relief to see the first few boys get a hiding!! I wasn’t going to be the only one, thank God for that.

The wave rumbles down the line with the same noise as you get a Snowdonia but its racing, so fast and builds to a solid overhead wave really fast. The night before Chuy Reyna had warned me and the Italian guy Lorenzo that the wave had Hawaiian power, he wasn’t joking, seeing guys getting poleaxed by the lip on wave after wave was in turn funny and scary!

The first session

The board choice is tough, its fresh water so do I need more volume, no say all the ex pros stick with your normal volume, I take a sensible route and surf the new Dominator 2.0 6’ 1 at 36 litres, about 1-2 litres more than I’d typically ride. Its 8am and chilly so it’s the Rip Curl Flashbomb 5/3mm from the Ranch’s wetsuit room.

The wave here has three settings – CT3 which is a wall then end barrel section, CT2 which is a short wall, barrel section another wall and then final barrel section, and an intermediate wave which kind of just rolls through.

The moment of truth then, paddling out with Shredshow Chris and waiting…I surf front side waves 95% of the time at home and travelling so wasn’t massively impressed to hear that my first wave would be  backside.

Funny enough as soon as I was in the water the nervousness went, there was going to be three waves before mine so a good chance to watch the others. When you’re lying on your board with the wave coming at you and someone up and riding you see the size and power and can’t quite believe this is a man made wave, it looks big as you float over the top right next to the fence.

Rider 4, 30 seconds, wave CT2 shit, that’s me! There’s a guy in the water to coach you and tell you when to paddle, go go go is the last thing I remember, don’t screw up the take off…eyes open, I’m up and riding, James on the jet ski has been joined by my two boys and they are all screaming at me, go faster, go faster.

I do my best, and then the moment of truth as James screams “crouch”, “shoulders down, pull in” with that, rail grabbed and I’m in the place I never imagined I would be and then Armageddon, boom, one of the heaviest beatings made worse by the total surprise that this is all happening in a pool! I pop up gasping for air absolutely elated…see photo below!

That first wave was maybe 20 seconds, the full length of the wave here is around 50 seconds, I wanted the full ride on my next and frontside wave.

There is a 4 minute wait between waves and I was amping to get my next one but is was going to be around 12 minutes unless I could poach a wave that someone fell off, no drop ins here! No poaching sadly but my wave came, I paddled, I was in and then so gutted just caught enough of a rail to slow me down and trap me behind the section, I’d blown it, so gutted.

The next surfer down the line, Franklin from Firewire took the wave and shredded for the next 40 seconds, all I could see was spray and the silhouette of him in my tube.

I was so angry with myself, my kids on the jet ski were roundly abusing me, all I could do was laugh. Franklin jumped off the ski and paddled over, “you take my wave brother, you’ve come a lot further than me”, I was so thankful to him, that next wave was the best wave I’ve ever had.

Take off nailed, not too low or too high on the wave and I was totally immersed in my surfing, James on the ski is telling me where to be and then it comes, “tube section next” I see it coming, the lip starting to launch and there it is a perfect barrel, but that lip is so thick, something in my sub conscience takes over and I bail.

I still don’t know why now, but hey it was still the longest wave i've ever surfed at over 40 seconds and I loved every second of it. My most excellent wife had been taking photos the whole time and with my kids on the ski too it couldn’t be any better.   

The facilities at the ranch are insane, so it was straight into the hot tub with a beer and it was only 9.15am In the clubhouse a live feed is running for every single wave surfed, food is on tap all day and the staff cannot do enough for you, amazing.

Talking surfing with the other boys and the total relief that the first session was done in a relatively competent manner with no humiliation meant everything got far more relaxed and its was time to chill and watch the rest of the surfers.

The standard of surfing as through the roof, so many people getting 10 second barrels it was insane, the stoke in the whole place was mad, everyone was so happy to be in this very special place.

We then headed down to the far end of the pool to surf the reform with my other boy Beau (8) it was so so much fun words can’t describe it. The Dominator 2.0 is a bit of a revelation, it paddles really well and doesn’t feel oversized, its more responsive than the original dominator, the squash and less volume under the back foot and in the rails worked perfectly.

The second session

My son Zak (11) was desperate to get a wave so the guys at the ranch very kindly allowed him to have one of my waves with the provision that I surfed with him and we both rode foamies, I gave in to his constant nagging and out we paddled. Initially he wanted to surf the CT2 wave but as soon as he saw it head on he opted for the intermediate wave.

We paddled together popped up and I kicked out to let him ride it on his own, 35 seconds later he kicked out having ridden the wave of his young life. The next one, we rode together all the way to the end section, a truly memorable session for us both.

The third session

Its 80 degrees by 3pm and so it’s my own Vissla 7 Seas 3/2mm and feeling braver the new Sci-Fi 2.0 6’ 0” at 35.4 litres. I didn’t get on brilliantly with the original Sci-Fi, found the wide tail too floaty and hard to control but the new version with narrower tail looks far more fun.

Right this was the one, barrel guaranteed surely now I had my eye in and a bit more confidence. I’d seen heaps of people receive a lip to the head and was definitely going to duck enough to get under the sledge hammer lip. First wave, frontside, happy days, paddle hard, in and riding.

Numerous carves (no vertical surfing for me!!) and the end section approaches. At this stage of the day the legs are starting to feel it and its getting harder to generate speed, James on the ski resumes his screaming and I see the end section starting to throw, “get lower, speed up” he screams to no avail, I’m too deep and not low enough, lip to the head and I’m tumbling.

I can’t help but laugh when I pop up, so close and yet so far. Wave number two and we’re away, this time it’s my legs that are screaming, not James an despite my best efforts I get caught behind the section half way along the wave, that’s it I’m done.

I couldn’t physically have done more, those 50 squats every morning got me this far but for the next time I go (please Firewire) I’ll be doing 100 squats for the 6 months beforehand!

The Sci-Fi 2.0 was excellent, more responsive than the Dominator 2.0 and faster out of turns, it could handle more power and size for sure and in the hands of a better surfer would be a go to choice.

Aftershow

 Done. 7 waves surfed (2 on a foamie though, do they count??) every wave enjoyed to the absolute maximum, it’ll be even better next time.

Sitting in the hot tub with another beer, sunburnt face and fully chilled there wasn’t anywhere else on earth I’d rather have been. Everyone was so stoked with their experience and so happy for everyone else, it had been a day that no one would forget. An excellent dinner followed in an atmosphere of extreme happiness for all concerned.

The main man from the Ranch Will arranged a group photo and then an impromptu award for surfer of the day. No one really cared who won but when Will announced the winner as my boy Zak the place erupted, He won a Softech Kyuss King Rocket Fish which he is absolutely stoked about! it was the perfect end to the perfect day.

Its really hard to put into words just how good the whole experience there is, from start to finish the exceptional staff can’t do enough for you, the whole set up is perfect. The wave itself if you compare like with like  is on a par if not better than anything I’ve experienced from Indo and the Maldives to anywhere in Europe, its just so much fun to surf with proper power and speed.

Big thanks to Hector at Firewire UK, Mark and Brion at Firewire USA, Franklin, Brett, Brent, Petch, Chuy, Shredshow Chris and everyone else who made for the perfect experience.  

Photos taken by Alison Madden Instagram: @als_madden