Cowaramup Bombora, better known as Cow Bombie, sits over a mile and a half offshore from Gracetown on Western Australia’s Margaret River coast. One of Australia’s premier big-wave venues, needing a powerful Southern Ocean swell to come to life, she’s a fickle beast. But when she turns on, she’s something special.
“Cow Bombra has this incredible quality when everything comes together,,” tells big-wave documentarian Tim Bonython. “The deep blue ocean, the offshore wind, the long lines marching in from the Southern Ocean, and these beautiful, monster-shaped waves breaking way out to sea. For me, it’s the sort of place where you try to capture more than just the surfing … you try to capture the feeling.”
In his latest dispatch, Bonython pulls the trigger on a Cow Bombie mission, dragging local surfers Darian Cheffers and Zac McCartney, as well as Portuguese big-wave charger Salvador Couto, along for the ride. With a half-century of shooting surfing under his belt, it was much more than just another surf trip.
“I’ve been living this lifestyle of chasing swells since 1976, when I was still at school and catching the bus to Bondi Beach with my camera. Back then I was filming mostly Cheyne Horan, who would go on to finish second in the World Championship four times,” Bonython explains. “Somewhere around that time, I found my crossroads between surfing and photography, and I don’t think I’ve ever really looked back.”
As for this specific session, “the waves might not have been the biggest, but they were some of the most picturesque I’ve seen out there, especially in the late afternoon light,” he adds.
As soon as he was back in the harbor, Bonython was off again, chasing the same swell to Shipstern’s Bluff in Tasmania. But that’s coming up in part two. Until then, enjoy the jaw-dropping majesty of Cow Bombie and Bonython’s timeless work behind the lens.
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