The Same Day that almost ended Aaron Gold’s life.

It’s been called Mad Monday. Mega. Massive. Whatever. Though it wasn’t quite as mind-blowing as the June 2012 swell that sidelined the world tour and gave the big-wave elite a full day of prime air time, May 23 was still a day for the Cloudbreak history books. But not for all the best reasons.

You may recall that the day opened up with the near-drowning of big-wave ironman, Aaron Gold. The incident shook up Greg Long, Mark Healey, Francisco Porcella, and the other men who’d shown up for a piece of 20-foot Cloudbreak, but, as Gold would have expected, it didn’t stop them from regrouping and going. Lucky for us, filmer Jaiden Maclean was there with his drone, zipping the line-up all day.