Jughead meets the one-eyed monster
Words: Anthony Pancia / Photos: Russell Ord
It’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to ride a wave-like Cyclops but no sooner did images of it first appear in the early nineties, so too did the unique brand of surfer keen to give it a red hot go.
Located off the remote southern coast of Western Australia, the first images of Cyclops redefined what a breaking wave was capable of, and that included breaking the back of one of Australia’s most daring bodyboarders Chad Jackson in 2004.
The injury came close to ending Jackson’s life (it took six months before he would walk again) but the drip-feed of footage slowly emerging of Cyclops fed right into the adrenal gland of Sydney-based surfer, Justin Allport.
Universally known by his nickname of Jughead-Allport had made a name for himself for charging headlong into waves others steered well clear of and it’s certainly not for the notoriety.
In 2005, he sensationally made international headlines after breaking his leg in four places while riding a big wave off the Californian coast known as Ghost Trees.
Near on 13 years later, Allport finds himself staring out at the waves of his home break on the New South Wales Central Coast.
Though it looks inviting, a bigger swell is due to hit and Allport opts instead to “clear up a few chores around the house so I can spend the whole day surfing.”
It’s going back a few years, but it doesn’t take much for Allport to recall his first trip to Cyclops after being urged along by the charismatic big-wave surfer, Koby Abberton.
“Koby had told me Cyclops is not really a wave to be messed with and I remember thinking, ‘Well now you’ve really got my attention,’ and set about keeping an eye on the weather charts,” Allport recalled.
“It was just a matter of waiting for all the elements to come together.”
Allport says he was initially drawn to waves like Cyclops (known in surfing circles as slabs) as they offered a short-cut to the adrenalin hit he gained riding the all too infrequent big waves that graced the beaches around his Central coast home.
“I went to Bali when I was 15 and it was the first time I got to surf proper, big clean waves and it was all I could think about doing when I got home,” says Allport.
“The problem was, we don’t really get a lot of big clean waves but there are a couple of these slabby type waves where I could still get that same sort of rush because they had that same sort of power, so it kind of filled in the gap.”
The peculiar kink with surfers like Justin Allport is their complete unwillingness to accept the fact that the last big wave they rode was “the one”, they’re forever chasing that next wild ride and will scrimp, save and hustle like hell for the chance to go bigger.
Which is how Allport came to find himself pinned to the bottom of the Southern Ocean after rolling the dice on a second trip to Cyclops after the first had left such an impression a return trip had become all-consuming.
“I remember after seeing and riding Cyclops for the first time that there was just something so alluring about not just the wave itself, but the whole set-up,” recalls Allport.
“It’s one of those waves that won’t ever get crowded or overexposed because it is just so extreme that you can’t really fake it out there. There’s no real way of playing it safe and you just have to trust your instincts but even then, a lot of it is just luck. The wave comes up out of deep, deep water and basically folds over itself when it hits that rock shelf so you really are just hoping for the best when you get towed into one.”
For a rare moment though, Allport had initially found himself second-guessing his intention when he arrived at Cyclops as the swell peaked and the sun began to set.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Is this really such a good idea?’ I’d spent the best part of a year just itching to get back here but I was looking at these crazy looking waves thinking there was absolutely no way I wanted anything to do with them,” says Allport.
“Cyclops is not ‘down the road’ from anywhere. It’s got dangerous written all over it and the consequences are very, very real.”
But, as is often the case with surfers of this ilk, the only way to deal with that doubt is to move through it.
“I tend to find in cases like this, the best way is just to get one as quickly as possible then if that works out alright, I just want another one and another one. Once you get rid of that lingering doubt, every wave after it becomes that little much easier.”
Cyclops was not initially kind to Allport for that second trip and he suffered a wipeout which had those watching sure would be his last. But he brushed it off and continued to ride waves so few will ever have the chance to replicate, let alone witness.
It’s not an addiction Allport says has always been easy to deal while juggling the obligations of a family and career as a firefighter.
“It took me most of my adult life to come to the understanding there’d always be another swell and it kind of took my wife to really put that into my head,” explains Allport.
“Initially, I just could not get my head around it and I’d have a hard time planning anything else like a family trip when I knew there was another big swell on the way. I really used to struggle with that, but I guess, with my wife’s advice and just getting a little older you come to accepting the fact, that yeah, there’ll be another one.”
And a return trip to Cyclops?
“It’s been ten years between drinks out there so, wouldn’t mind if I did.”
