Life is but a wonderful adventure!
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and Derek Rielly’s letter perfect series yesterday sealed it for me. I need to write the profound book BeachGrit’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Secret Waves. Oh it is the rudest thing a surfer can do but… is it really? I mean, follow me for a minute here and then if you disagree I’ll happily be pilloried.
Hell, I’ll happily pillory myself.
So, waves are a limited commodity and there are lots more surfers than spots and blah blah blah blah. Right? You know the storylines for keeping waves quiet and also for rabid localism. Do you remember a few weeks ago when New Zealanders shot at other New Zealanders surfing their secret wave? The story got some traction in the lamestream media but it didn’t surprise me for one second and it didn’t surprise you for one second.
This is surfing and it is great BUT “secret waves” are also a very funny sacred cow in the day and age of Google Earth and Mick Fanning.
I’m not talking some brave boy or girl setting out with board, wax and pair of Birdwell’s here. I’m talking either the waves everyone “knows” or the waves that people film.
With me so far?
“World’s Greatest Secret Waves” is a relative term, of course. Of course it is. Everything about what we do is subjective. Our favorite pastime inspired the most relative phrase in the English language. “The best surfer in the water is the one having the most fun.”
Ha!
But that’s where you come in. What are the World’s Greatest Secret Waves? What is the criteria here? I suppose I should know but I do my writing on the fly so need you, always.
Here’s what I have so far:
Hazards (on California’s central coast)
One of the Salina Cruz waves
Te Maika (New Zealand)
And where else? The plan will be to go and surf then write everything. Where to park, how to walk, what board to ride etc.
Help!
And the point? To kick sacred cows but also encourage proper surf adventure again. It may seem in the day and age of Google Earth and Mick Fanning that secrets are no longer possible but that is crazy. This world is big and wild and very wild for the bravest of the brave. It always has been. Once a “secret spot” starts getting whispered about, though, it is no longer a true adventure. I want for true adventures.
I always have.
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I think the locals at “Hazards” would be more annoyed that you called the place “Hazards” than they would that you floundered around on the inside getting washed over the reef and paddling back in with your tail between your legs.
I don’t recall Hazards being particularly good, or particularly localized? Except by sharks. Need Houseman to confirm.
Earn your turns, bro.
Dig this story. It’s got legs. Legs walking just north of Ranch’s at that. Sans cord.
apparently there is a wave near a pier in Huntington. I have heard stories but never seen evidence that it actually produces surf.
Is it a secret spot until its been on youtube?
or the ones around Kalbarri and ditto for Rye K and Clay m vids
Very happy to add a chapter with Margs secret waves and point out which Taj B clips you can see them on
https://goo.gl/maps/tYsMx3M…
Absolutely pumps.
how those book sales going?
How cold is it at the moment?
How many set ups did you count?
The right off Lady Elliot Island, best wave on the east coast… load up da Bundaberg’s and get out there
Haha got kicked off the Island 2 days into a week long year 9 marine studies trip for getting sprung doing gravity bongs and getting half a dozen crew and a fkn teacher blazed on a bottle of bundy and a half ounce of red beard me an the boys smuggled over
Looks hectic
They have this website called WannaSurf, don’t know if you’ve heard of it…
-23.621386,152.178475
No locals cept meth addled long liners and the tigers
-49.4219056,70.4218909
Bring your 10/8 wetty.
Fuck that.
Yeah I know. I just picked a fucked-up looking place with a viable break.
Good fun eh?
Yep it’s a welcome distraction from wading hip deep through the shit show that is
Or -53.193272, 73.513952
Interesting skiing nearby…
(-63.0180235,-60.6137415)
Bit of a trek.
Might need to wear two pairs of jandals.
Good anchorage for your 19ft yacht, though 🙂
That left in Seaside where that loser kai the hitchhiker type dude got knocked out
Local is just a euphimism for “you’re outnumbered”
or I live here and you dont
If you head exactly due West from Lemoore to the Pacific you end up at a seclded stretch of beach with a nice A-frame on a south swell. A lot of work to get to and seldom surfed, the only locals you will encounter are grey and white. The polar opposite of Surf Ranch.
Just to be an asshole:
The polar opposite of Kelly’s Nocean is here:
Coordinates: -36.254498, 60.231630 (36° 15′ 16.2″ S, 60° 13′ 53.9″ E)
2500 miles east of Capetown
Same kinda locals though I’ll wager.
Good fun this page: antipodesmaps.com
I refer to the experience. Nature vs. artifice.
Oh, hey. Don’t go getting all fancy talk on me.
I was just being an asshole.
It IS a fun page though huh?
This is bullshit Smith, I wrote that very article for Surfing magazine in 2005. Wait, fuck that was ages ago.