“Logging late-night hours online, I studied the the terrain, bathymetry, people, marine life, weather-patterns, the cost, travel, logistics…"

In this compelling video, see the German-Portuguese shredder Nikolaus von Rupp get barrelled for roughly two-and-a-half clicks at Namibia’s famous Skeleton Bay, which is roughly 25 kms south of the town of Swakopmund.

Von Rupp, who is thirty two, cannot live without the transcendence of tube riding, a place where he can lose his ego for a moment, the indispensable elevator that raises his phallus to its fullest height.

Skeleton Bay, as you know, was  brokered to the world by a magazine and a computer nerd in 2007.

The Google Earth challenge was a Surfing magazine initiative to shoot a little out of the box, readers using the then new Google Earth tech to discover secret waves.

Deal was, you tell the mag, they let you join a photo shoot to the joint.

Brian Gable, an IT specialist, was a runner-up to the contest in 2007 (a wave in Western Sahara was chosen though no trip was made).

His loss drove him nuts.

“From that moment, I committed to nothing else,” Gable wrote. “Logging some serious late-night hours online, I focused on studying the country, the terrain and bathymetry, the people, the marine life, weather-patterns, the cost, travel, logistics, etc. I corresponded with locals halfway around the world. Obsessed and possessed, I selfishly put personal and professional duties aside and spent my days formulating the ultimate package for the ultimate magazine surf trip. To me, it wasn’t just a free adventure for myself. It was a chance to prove that the gem I found not only stood up to every other world-class setup, but was on the very short list at the top. Then, on Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007 at 10:03 AM, I got the call. First prize, the Indians take the pennant, the whole freakin’ enchilada!”

Skeleton Bay, of course, is now a photo studio, Von Rupp just one of dozens of pro’s squeezing its sides.

Better than snorting crystal blow, as old-timers used to say.

The ionic design by San Clemente's Commie-hating soccer-mom lookalike Matt Biolos, the 5'5" round nose fish!

I loved the Lost fish with its aggression and its warmth and its volatility when I first tasted its meat in 1999.

Matt Biolos’ board, the round-nose-fish, was different from the prevailing wisdom of the time, even among the early fishes. The 5’5″, as ridden by Chris Ward and Cory Lopez, turned a generation on to the idea that a performance board could be kinda kooky looking, a pointed nose but with a forward wide point and all wrapped up with a regular pulled-in 14″ tail (and radically thin at 2 1/16″). It’s a combination that, even now, some shapers don’t get, sending devils out on those thick and straight-railed cruise ships with 20″ tails.

“Before the RNF, I was that shaper guy who paints rad stuff and makes surf party vids,” Matt Biolos told me. “It afforded me the opportunity to get good surfers on my boards without them really needing to risk using them in contests. It bought me time as a designer to learn to get better. It made it possible for me to travel the world as a shaper. Once the design hit, I was immediately getting calls from around the world to come shape. Europe, South Africa, Australia, it all happened after the RNF.”

Of course, once you ride one you can never get off ‘em such is the addiction of easy speed, glide, turning, its ability to masquerade a lifetime of bad habits while developing new ones that’ll keep you off regular boards forever.

In episode four of Lost’s six-part video series that documents the controversial design, once described as an “evil clown that kills children” watch Kolohe Andino, Michael Rodrigues, Coco Ho, Kirra Pink and Luke Davis along with the CT tour’s late bloomer Yago Dora “carving, twisting, slipping sliding, spinning, driving, gouging and gliding-around sunny summer time California.”