Some surf videos are full of waves that are impressive to watch but you’d never want to surf. Near dry, bone-crunching slabs and the like. Others, like this one, will have you dreaming of scoring a session like this. If you ever find yourself down New Zealand way and the elements line up then maybe you could. How much fun does the legendary bar look?
Couple of sessions with Clay Marzo and Braiden Maither. Filmed by Kamala Maither with music By Andre Nickatina.
Ben Weiland took an obsession with hunting for remote surf breaks on Google Earth and turned it into real life exploration of some of the planet’s most inaccessible shorelines. Along with photographer Chris Burkard and a team of hardened surfers, they have scoured the remote corners of Alaska, Russia and Iceland – scoring isolated and deserted waves. Their latest journey takes them to the secluded Faroe Islands, a land of towering cliffs and raging seas.
When it comes to searching for waves, what tools do you utilise?
I spend a lot of time on Google Earth, scientific photo archives, weather sites, and getting in contact with local people. There is an obsession that comes with it. It is hard to stop, because I always wonder right before I decide to take a break, what if I had looked just past the next headland, or looked at one more photo. Maybe I would have come across a clue pointing toward a perfect wave…
In the film you head off to the Faroes with a team of surfers. Why did you choose this remote archipelago?
From the beginning it was very different from the usual trips. I had researched the surf potential and Chris Burkard and I had wanted to go for a long time. We knew surfing conditions were fickle and it wouldn’t be easy. The islands are surrounded by massive sea cliffs and access to gradual beaches that receive swell is extremely limited. But the challenge is what drew us there, as well as the stunning landscapes and unusual culture.
Most of the trip the weather was beautiful and uncharacteristically sunny, but there were no waves. We extended our tickets for three days, and at the very end a swell came in and the surf poured into the bay we were staying at. That is a moment I won’t easily forget.
What were the specific challenges you faced on this trip?
The biggest challenge was finding a place to surf, and accessing those places. At one point we parked our cars and hiked into the mountains, hoping to find a way down to a wave at the bottom of a sea bluff. We could see it breaking, but there was no way for us to reach it. These challenges are what make a project like this excited. You don’t know what you’ll find until you take the risk and go for it.
Cornwall, last Thursday, was one of those days. Solid swell, offshores, sunshine, but tricky finding anywhere pumping. Big tides meant anywhere that was on, wasn’t on for very long. Still, with a full day of decent weather it was a treat to be on the sand at 5:45am and still be there, albeit at a different beach, at 8pm…
Ben Skindog Surfboards making the most of the Cornish dawn yesterday…
Pubblicato da CARVE Surfing Magazine su Venerdì 6 maggio 2016
In the course of the day we managed to bump into Ben Skinner, Markie Lascelles, Josh Ward, Skippy, Ben Howard, Owain Davies, Stoker, Mr B and Reubyn Ash amongst others. Just nice to see everyone out loving the warmth and the waves.
Markie
Skindog
Skindog
Ben and Ben
Skindog
Ben Howard
Josh Ward
Reubs
Reubs
Car park crew
Seagull view
Steph Gilmore and glassy slice of fried gold from Kelly’s wave pool… Just insane. Interesting to see how close the design is to WaveGarden but using flexible netting and an above the pontoon device for moving the wave generating plough as opposed to the hard to fix underneath version currently employed by WG. Whatev’s enjoy dreaming about slotting into such joy…
Some fresh clips also now been added of Wingnut and Kerrzy. Josh kills it. Wingnut seems to have been given a go when it was looking more like a regular wave garden style pool? Not an epic barrel at all. Anyhoose. Kerrzy proves you can do turns and airs also…
Hossegor doing what it does best … pumping pits down Les Landes way.
