"Foam Ball Ride of the Decade!"

Nathan Florence, brother of US Olympian John John, has knocked the surfing world for six after shucking what some big-wave surfers are calling the “best barrel ever.” 

Florence, who is twenty-eight and whose couronne of red hair is masked by the bleaching effects of sun and salt, rode the wave at a remote Irish reef on November 6, the swell generated by the remnants of Hurricane Martin. 

“When riding the lightning all comes together!” says Nathan. “One of the rides of me life, thanks all local boys for having me in their beautiful land and inspiring always to send!”

 

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A post shared by Nathan Florence (@nathan_florence)

 

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A post shared by Nathan Florence (@nathan_florence)

Compliments were quick to follow. 

Mark Healey, no stranger to oversized waves, wrote, “You may have my two favourite backhand tube ride ever.”

From WSL commentator Strider Wasilewski, “Best heavy wave surfer in the world.” 

Tube hunter Brett Barley, “Foamball Ride of the Decade.”

Dorian, “Sheesh epic!!”

Pipe Pro runner-up Seth Moniz, “Best Barrel ever.” 

Florence’s brother, John John, older by two years was quick to collar tie the middle bro of the Florence triumvirate, writing with a masterfully droll wit, “Could’ve been deeper.” 

If you’re wondering, Nathan’s on an eight-five Pyzel Padillac, set up as a thruster not a quad and the protuberance from his mouth is a miniature POV camera, although that footage has yet to be loosed.

Apartheid comes to Makua Beach!

You’d be hard pressed to find a more inviting stretch of sand as Makua Beach over there on Oahu’s westside, the rainless leeward coast where Sunny Garcia was born and where Greg Noll famously rode his last-ever wave.

It ain’t an easy or an obvious find.

You gotta drive past Makaha, the road narrows, ain’t no shacks or development, and head towards Yokohama Bay. The sunsets are divine, you can camp there, and if you want to swim with happy marine creatures, turtles and dolphins abound. Tiger sharks, too, but use prudence when approaching.

The Makua Valley, beach to the mountains, holds a special place in the hearts of Hawaiians as the birthplace of man, Makua meaning parent. Also believed to be the kick-off point for souls travelling to the afterlife.

A recent race-based imbroglio has cast a long shadow over the peaceful Makua Beach sands, however, after police were called following what one woman, @_ladyshark, is calling a race-based attack, the woman recording the aftermath for her 10k followers’ enjoyment.

It’s all very entertaining, as these things usually are, and no one escapes the event with clean hands or with dignity intact.

Question: where do you stand on these matters, indigenous owners of land given a slice here and there where they can frolic without the stench of whiteness or is public land for all, including the distant descendants of the hated colonialists?

 

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Tears in Santa Monica.

Oh but certainly you’ve seen it, by now, and many multiple times. Jordan Anast’s stunning image of a longboarder mid-contest, at famed San Onofre, and that juvenile great white shark shooting skyward in the background. Snapped October 22, the photograph has taken on a life of its own, being featured in every major and minor media across the globe, most recently CNN.

Anast told the left-leaning service, “I didn’t know until I looked closely after, and saw the structures of the fins. Then I realized it was a great white shark.”

Wonderful and, officially, the most viral snap in surfing’s history.

The problem?

Well, the longboarding contest was not a sanctioned World Surf League event, rather a local San Onofre Surf Club shootout, thus leaving the “global home of surfing” far away from the glorious spotlight.

As you know, the World Surf League has been on a campaign to radically alter surfing’s past, present and future since its establishment in 2015 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Top officials quickly declared that it was actually founded 39 years earlier, in 1976, and dipped into various Wikipedias to burnish the narrative.

Kelly Slater’s first WSL championship, for example, came in 1992.

Sixteen years before the WSL came to be.

In any case, the most viral moment in non-Stalinist WSL history was when Mick Fanning became entangled with a great white shark during a contest in South Africa.

The moment was flashed on screens, globally, including CNN and World Surf League brass did their best to leverage into the stratospheric growth we are witnessing today.

Numbers to the moon.

Not, though, as high as this newest San Onofre sensation.

The question, I suppose, will the World Surf League absorb the San Onofre Longboard Club in order to lay claim or is Santa Monica’s hatred of longboarding more powerful?

Currently more questions than answers.