Video: Top Secret Razor Sharp Tubes with Ben Gravy
In this day and age, if a surf spot is uncrowded, there’s likely a reason.
And conversely, if it is crowded – like the world’s most crowded waves – it’s because these spots are consistently good, easy to forecast, and offer a high possibility of catching the wave of one’s life…if they can snag one off the hundreds of others in the lineup.
But surfers will go to extreme lengths to avoid crowds, literally by traveling long distances and more figuratively by settling for slight imperfections in the wave. Like Ben Gravy, who trekked 40 hours to this undisclosed tropical island, to surf sketchy, barreling waves breaking over a nearly dry reef. But hey, he had it to himself.
Of course, Gravy doesn’t give any indication as to where this island of untapped surf resources resides. It does sound off-the-grid, about as much as they come:
“On this remote tropical island there is no surf report, there is no trusted forecast, all the wind and swell models are usually wrong,” Ben wrote. “All we have is our eyeballs & our gut instinct. I've visited this place in the past, but never for a swell of this magnitude. We have a few days a clean pumping surf before the real swell starts to fill in. It's going to be interesting to see what exactly happens, but I'm absolutely stoked to find out!”
So, how’d he go?
Pretty much as expected on a not-so-well-trodden, super shallow reef infested island hideaway. A couple tubes, a glimmer of potential, and some close-calls with the reef below. After one session, Gravy described just how sketchy it was:
“The problem is, it literally goes into like two-to-four inches of water. So, I just got one, then there were two waves behind it. I was in water this deep [motions to ankles], and I just laid down on the reef. It’s mental out here.”
But the video doesn’t seem to show the same waves posted on his social media. (See above.) Must be the same place, though. Stay tuned for episode two.
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