“Whoever started surfing this wave is out of their mind”
The newly minted Waterman of the Year, Hawaii-born and maddeningly cool Nathan Florence, has brought his YouTube viewers along to Brazil for a POV ride of one of the heaviest waves in the world.
The joint is called Shock Slab, which is a translation of the Portuguese Laje do Shock, and it is found just west of Rio.
It is a wave, of sorts, that rears, sometimes seventeen stories high, and attempts to squeeze the rider’s brain out of his ears. Riders talk of feeling the sides of their skulls collapse, then expand, and where there had been respondent brain was now a purple putty. The Shock Slab was first ridden by bodyboarders using the power of arms and flippers thought it was later colonised, as these places usually are, by surfers harnessing the horsepower of jetskis.
The video begins with Nathan Florence accepting his Waterman of the Year after a short, but excellent, speech by his wife Mahina Florence, who is the daughter of world champion jiujitsu black belt and former strong-arm of Andy and Bruce Irons, Mr Kai Garcia aka The Kaiborg. The award’s prestige is unimpeachable, previous winners including WSL owners Dirk and Natasha Ziff.
Nathan Florence also visits the California headquarters of Florence (formerly Florence Marine X) in Newport Beach. Staff people are very happy to see the face behind the brand.
Surfing begins at nine minutes although Mahina’s speech a few mins in is worth the slender splice of time it takes to listen.
Essential.
And the “Wife Award” goes to Nathan Florence!. Honestly I can’t imagine any surf rats buying Florence Marine X surfwear… nothing against the Florence bros… just seems bland.
The amazing Mahina ruining marital bliss for everyone else…
Married dudes watching are all wondering (consciously or latently) ‘why doesn’t my wife sit on a cliff in the freezing cold for 8 hours filming me surf?’
In short, because travelling around the world surfing slabs is not your (very lucrative) job.
“STOREYS”? Great proofreading – not! 🤣
Mate.
storey
/ˈstɔːri/
noun
plural noun: storeys
a part of a building comprising all the rooms that are on the same level.
“each tower would be 14 storeys high”
Ah, Storeys is only used in the current and former British empire. Looks like you’re still a POM.
Used literally everywhere except the good old U S of A.
Keep measuring shit in ounces, quarts and yards, letting billionaires own all sides of your political system, and spelling words like no-one else anywhere. Exceptionalism looks cute on you <3<3<3
Grew up in the neighborhood directly behind the Florence shop. It was many things including a convenience store and more recently an army/navy surplus shop. However, more importantly, next door was a now defunct barbershop that my parents sent me to. Normally a haircut would have been the last thing a 12 year old boy would voluntarily go to except for the pile of Playboy back issues that collected about. Learned a lot in that barbershop.
Always wanted that buggy out front growing up. Apparently, prior to it becoming a fixture in Newport it was used in a 1982 movie called “Megaforce”. Which, I’ve read, was as shitty as the name is cool.
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17 stories = 180 feet high
Surfing starts at the 9min mark. Whiffled up Kaipo sightings start at the 3:20 mark https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Was there just 10 versions of the same wave? Not his best edit but hey it was in Brazil so beggers can’t be choosers
That zone sucks in an impressive amount of swell only to morph it into a complicated mess that only brushes the realm of surfable
Mahina’s side boob giving the legendary Lyndie’s side boob a run for her money there at that presso night.
I was recently in the lineup with her, got a “That was awesome” after I threaded one in front of her, made my year.
This guy’s a living legend.
When will Nate surf the Right in West Oz
And Cyclops!
pad on the cliif looks sick. fuck knows how they slept with those mutants just about breaking on to the porch.