There’s more than meets the eye, when it comes to Skeleton Bay.

Sure, it’s inarguably the world’s longest, most perfect, sand-bottomed, barreling lefthand pointbreak in the world. No question. But that doesn’t make it an easy wave to surf.

Following the surf world’s Great Namibian Pilgrimage of 2023, in which hordes of the world’s greatest tube-hunters descended upon Skeleton Bay, some for the first time (Kelly Slater), details surrounding the difficulty of the wave are coming out.

Nathan Florence was one of the many pro surfers who headed to Namibia for the recent run of swell. And while he was there, he clocked an entire marathon during a session filled with surfing, walking and paddling back up the point, wave after wave.

But the clip above shows something different than what we typically see from Skeleton Bay: a wipeout. Nate gets tubed, then kicks out, catches an edge, and gets pitched over the handlebars. Sorta refreshing amidst all the endless, perfect tube edits we’ve seen, no?

Speaking to the difficulty and endurance it takes to surf the wave, following the marathon session, Nate wrote:

“Today was one of those days! The Namibia dream, 32 miles of Surfing, paddle, walk, swim, held under tumbled along the bottom long hold downs long barrels endless marching and current battling!”

Captioning the post, Vans wrote:

“We all see the highlights and the glory waves from Skeleton Bay, but what’s it like to actually track one down? @Nathan_Florence logged 12 hours and over 32 miles in a single day.”

How about someone makes a wipeout reel from Skeleton Bay next? Anyone?

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