Cloudbreak Fires as Cyclone Vaianu Slams Fiji and Forces Surfers to Flee (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Apr 14, 2026 8:14 AM ET

Quite often, in surfing, you’ve gotta risk it to get the biscuit.

That could mean a number of things – sending it on a wave that looks unmakeable, buying a board without testing it that turns out to be magical, or hopping on a flight in hopes of scoring a swell in a far-flung locale. For the latter, there’s the risk of getting skunked.

But recently, when Hawaii’s Koa Rothman and Billy Kemper rolled the dice. They flew to Fiji for a season-opener swell, with their sights set on scoring Tavarua’s famed Cloudbreak, before Tropical Cyclone Vaianu swirled through the South Pacific. And the gamble paid off – at least for a little while, until the storm forced evacuations on Tavarua.

The video above shows the final session from that swell strike, with Rothman and Kemper (in addition to Parker Coffin) trading off overhead Cloudbreak just about as good as it gets. Prior to the session, Rothman prophesized:

“In like an hour, Cloudbreak is going to be all-time inside ledge, just draining left point as far as you can see. We spent about eight hours in the ocean yesterday, so I’m pretty fried. But it’s going to be firing, so we’re out there.”

And well, he was right. They absolutely scored.

Previously, when the swell was bigger, Rothman and the rest of the pack at Cloudbreak got caught on the inside by countless 20-foot Cloudbreak bombs. One even swallowed a jet ski, sending it into the inside reef. “I got so caught inside,” Rothman regaled from the safety of the boat. “It’s so exhausting. It reminds me so much of, like a cat-and-mouse game. You get a sick one, then you get smoked. So tough.”

As for the most recent session, it wasn’t quite as tricky. More manageable. Then, Cyclone Vaianu hit, and from the end of the video, you can see the storm clouds forming over the beloved heart-shaped Fijian surf paradise. Surfers were forced to evacuate.

With the rain pelting him in the face, as they rushed away from the storm on the boat, Rothman exclaimed: “It feels like I’m getting hit by a BB gun!”

Good thing they scored just before. The juice was worth the squeeze.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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