Behind the Peak

“In the Hall of the Mountain King,” featured in the latest edition of TSJ, frames a 12-page close-up of South Africa’s Sunset Reef, its position as the country’s original heavy-water proving grounds, and the renewed interest both Cape Town and traveling big-wave surfers have taken in its upper-limit possibilities over the last few years. 

Directed by the story’s author, Will Bendix, and its photographer, Alan van Gysen, this accompanying mini-documentary adds further context to Sunset’s history and mechanics, as well as in-depth interviews with its past and present players.

Additionally, it casts a wider net on the stepping-stone variety of surf setups found in the local township of Kommetjie, from the rippable walls of Long Beach out front, across the bay to the shifty playing field of Dungeons, then back out to Sunset’s open-ocean peak of seemingly untapped potential.

Behind the Peak is a motion-visual study in a fully holding surf zone.