All Jamaica was on alert! The report of category 4 Hurricane Ivan entering the south eastern Caribbean and starting to swing to the north as it traveled westwards, put Jamaica directly in its cross hairs. This could spell disaster for the island and every radio and TV station was carrying continuous updates on it’s track. All Jamaica watched with bated breath as “Ivan The Terrible” made its approach. In the past, every time a hurricane approached the island it would veer away at the last moment cementing the opinion that Jamaica was “God Blessed”, but the memories of the destruction and mayhem caused by hurricane Gilbert ’88 had every Jamaican concerned. Prayers for salvation were offered by all. However, there was one group of Jamaicans who had a very specific prayer regarding the islands fate.

“Oh Lord of hosts, Devine Creator. Please consider your lowly servants plea in this time of great danger. Lord, by your hands all things are done and made possible. Should it so please you Lord, we beg that this hurricane miss our beloved island and that you will hold all safe and free from harm. Also Lord if at all possible, we ask that you allow this hurricane to provide us with excellent surfing waves….”

On Friday September 3rd, the reports were for a direct hit some time early Tuesday morning. By Saturday morning, it was supposed to hit Tuesday night. By Saturday night, they were saying Wednesday. Ivan kept slowing and intensifying as it crept across the southern Caribbean. The surfers watched the sea around the island as Ivan approached like hawks but it remained as flat as a lake….until Thursday the 9th that is!

The premiere surf spot on the south coast and indeed the whole island was “The Zoo”. A river mouth boulder reef right on the edge of an under water chasm, which was ideally situated to pick up all easterly swells and convert them into perfectly formed surfing waves. Now on Thursday amidst the clatter of citizens battening down roofs and preparing for what was to be a direct hit on Friday morning, a few lucky surfers made the drive down to Zoo. The air was still as could be, not a cloud in the powder blue sky, but the sea had come alive…. the surfers dreams had been realized! They saw what eyes could not believe… perfect 8’ to 10’ waves breaking methodically across the reef. If something could be better than perfect, this was it!

The buzz spread like wildfire. Cell phones jammed up with incoming calls from anxious surfers.
“How is it?.....Best day of the year”

Quashi was in Jamaica and has stayed at my place. He had seen the hurricane and came over from California not thinking much of it and now he was smack dab in the middle of one of the most perfect days of the year. We grabbed a couple of boards and took off for the beach. We must have come during a short calm spell as the waves appeared small, maybe chest high at best! My 7 year old son Ivah who had gone to the beach with his elder brother was sitting on a log looking out at the small group of surfers in the water. I asked him why he wasn’t out? “Too BIG!” He said with eyes open wide. I glanced out to sea again and was just in time to see all the surfers in the lineup starting to paddle for the horizon. Then I saw it. The sea seemed to recede, heave, lurch and suddenly a massive 10’ wall of water climbed up onto the reef and folded on it self, zippering across the shallows and finally emitting a billowing puff of spray from it’s gaping barrel.

“Aaawwoooo!” I grabbed my board and streaked across the rocky beach down to the waters edge and paddled out. The water was warm against my skin. The sun baked down and just then another set was charging into the lineup. I saw Yves trying to stroke into what seemed like an easy one, only to see him pull back as it folded on itself right below him almost sucking him over the falls. I paddled faster with goose bumps up and down the back of my neck. Quashi got out the video camera and started capturing the whole thing from the beach. Soon I was dropping into some of the best waves of my life. They were epic. Barrel after perfect barrel pulled through and it was getting bigger. The MET office was still saying the hurricane was coming that night but a more beautiful morning you could not find. Quashi finished a tape and paddled out. As he approached the lineup I dropped in to the wave of the day. Pulling in behind the peak and getting a full on standup barrel, we surfed until I almost collapsed from exhaustion.

Inilek was putting on a show of his own dropping in, pulling deep bottom turns, getting covered, exploding off of lips and gouging cutbacks. I sat on the beach and shot a bit more footage and a few stills and then headed back home to do some final battening down before evacuating the coast for higher ground.

That night we hunkered down at a small hotel in Kingston to wait for the onslaught. We waited and waited listening to the regular hurricane watch reports which kept stretching the time of arrival further and further back. We fell asleep at about 3:30am and jumped up at 5:30 expecting to hear the wind whistling past the windows, but all was still.

Our first thoughts were for our house and the danger of looters. The hurricane was now supposed to hit by 10:00am, so Quashi, Maggie and I sped out to check on things back at the camp. If there was doubt about the hurricane coming yesterday, there was certainly no doubt now. The sky was purple and lightening flashes preceded the thump of distant thunder. When we got back to the house all was peaceful and safe. There was surf but nothing epic….or so it appeared. We bundled into the bus and decided to give the Zoo a check.

As we rolled into the parking lot we could tell that there was a swell, but this swell was like no other. It was as though the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii had been physically transported to Jamaica and plopped right on our doorstep. The waves were mind boggling. Huge 20’ walls were peeeeeling for a hundred yards and more with not a drop of water out of place….Perfection!!! We stood there on the beach just flabbergasted by the intensity of the energy that was on display. We looked down the coast towards the airport and could see the backs of massive walls as they exploded along the peninsula. We decided to roll down the coast a bit to see what we could see.

We headed out along the Palisadoes strip and stopped where a TV news team were getting some shots of the huge surf. As we watched, a gigantic wave crashed on the shore and ran up the beach, knocking over the TV camera man and washing right across the road. Onlookers scattered and many took that as their cue to begin evacuating the area. Just then we saw Kenny driving up. He was coming back from a drive to look at Lighthouse. He told us that Mikey Mair had paddled out at Dog Leg and caught a 10’ wave. That was it. I decided then and there that if someone else surfed there was no chance of me not trying for a wave at Zoo.

Quashi and I headed back to the house and I grabbed an old 7’0” that had three different fins on it and scrambled back to Zoo. The waves seemed to be getting bigger with every set. I watched as the waves crashed and reeled down the beach with mechanical perfection. The question was, “How do you get out?” The surge was pushing right up into the parking lot and it was rolling football sized rocks back and forth like marbles. I decided to wait for the biggest wave of a set to rush up the beach and then charge out as it receded.

A massive set came in and after the last big one started to suck back out from the beach, I hopped skipped and jumped from boulder to boulder right down to the edge of the sea just in time to meet the next wave, which was a snarling 8’ wall of white water rearing up to slam me into the rocks. I was fortunate enough to see a large stone right in my path and I stepped up on it and jumped up landing on the back of the wave as it swept me back up the beach. I scratched as hard as I could and the wave began to suck back out. My hands brushed on rocks with each stroke as I was drawn toward the incoming wall. I just barely made it under the shore break and popped out the back and with a few powerful strokes I was gliding through the glassy grey Caribbean.

It was eerie. I was at my old familiar spot which I had been surfing for the past 35 years but what I was seeing was surreal. Spray blew 30’ into the air off the enormous peaks which folded over with magical perfection blasting spit out of the gaping barrels. Not a drop of water was out of place. My heart pounded in my chest. I had never ridden this board in anything over chest high before, and in my rush to leave I had grabbed a comp leash instead of a big wave leash.

Not withstanding, I decided to catch a “small” one to see how the board felt so as I paddled out I turned and dropped in on the shoulder. I made it to the bottom and made a shaky bottom turn and climbed up to the lip. I brought it back around and dropped back down the wall, pumped a couple times and pulled out over the back. The board would work. Now I wanted a BIG one!

With the lightning, thunder and light drizzle, I could tell that the hurricane would be hitting any moment. The last thing I needed was to get caught outside when the gale hit. I paddled out further than I ever had and then I paddled out some more. I looked back to shore and could see a small crowd of people on the beach and up on the bridge watching the “mad” Rasta man out in the hurricane.

I sat in silence, alone with my thoughts. Lots of things could go wrong but I was focused on one thing and one thing only. I needed to catch the biggest wave of the biggest set before the storm hit and then get back in to land safely. I floated over the gigantic swells peering out to sea for what seemed like an eternity. Then I saw it… a long dark grey line on the horizon. I was too close in. I started to scratch for the deep. The wave kept growing as it approached. I could see it towering over the waves in front of it. As I stroked over the final wall I came face to face with the most awesome sight my eyes have beheld in Jamaica. It began to swell and climb up the shallow underwater shelf. I turned. As I stroked shoreward through the oily glass the beast lurched and lifted me up… up… up… then I was looking down over a liquid ledge. I jumped to my feet and the board hesitated for an instant and then… I was in and dropping down the vertical face. The board sliced through the wave like the proverbial hot knife through butter. I could see the lip arcing out over my head as I leaned into my bottom turn.

I felt the G’s in my legs as the board bit in and shot off across the face. I was flying. I made the top of the wall and dropped back down, drawing a bead that sent me screaming down the line. The crowd on the beach was going crazy as I pulled out over the back.

My mind was blank, I struggled to rewind the tape in my head to try and remember what had just happened. I had done it! What a rush! I was smiling ear to ear. But I wasn’t home free yet. I still had to get back in!

My strategy was to wait till there was a lull in the waves and then paddle inside the line up and ride a small wave in. As I reached inside the lineup another set stormed in. I kept paddling for the shore as I wanted to be as far inside of the impact zone as possible. The first wave of the set exploded 15 yards outside of me. I faced land and sat on the tail of my board. The white water hit me from behind like a truck and I was tossed and tumbled around for a few seconds but I held on to my board and popped up on the back of the soup where I kept paddling. Before I knew it I was being carried all the way up the beach and was deposited neatly right at the edge of the parking lot. I was met like a hero with cheers from all those present.

We packed up our gear and piled into the bus and made our way back to the house as the fine rain floated down from the grey skies. I wanted to surf for longer but with the hurricane due in minutes we needed to get to safe ground. Back at the house we made a last minute walk around check and then headed back into town. We waited for the storm to hit, and we waited and we waited. It was still not coming. I could have kept surfing. The fury of the storm did not hit until 10:00pm!!! We could have surfed all day!!

That night the real fury of Hurricane Ivan came ashore. For 10 hours 130 mile an hour winds and torrential rains lashed the island while 50’ seas obliterated whole swaths of coastline taking all in it’s path including our beloved Zoo. The perfect boulder reef which was formed at the mouth of the Hope River was ploughed up and removed by the violent and devastating energy that Ivan generated during the night and where we used to play in perfect waves is now only an insignificant stretch of coast. Now all that remains are the videos, pictures and memories held by those who knew the perfect wave that was…..THE ZOO.

THE END…?

About Billy Wilmot:
A founding member of the Jamaican Surfing Association (JSA), Billy Wilmot has been surfing since the early 70’s. Wilmot has had a vision of a world rated Caribbean Pro Circuit. Wilmot has a special love for overhead Zoo and was once hailed as the best on the island. Billy Wilmot caught the largest recorded wave in Jamaican history during the onset of Hurricane Ivan.