John Seaton Callahan

Photographer/Explorer

10 Endangered Secret Spots

Thursday, November 15th, 2012
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Mauritania - One of hundreds of insurance-inspired shipwrecks in Mauritania. This ship was scuttled in the middle of a good right point, cutting the wave into two sections. Photo: Callahan/SurfExplore

Love them or hate them, secret spots have been and integral part of surf culture for decades. SurfEXPLORE’s Erwan Simon puts forward an opinion that secrets spots are negative by default, that many great waves have been destroyed because of the Cult of the Secret Spot and the only way forward is openness and recognition of economic value. With the speed and proliferation of the many forms of social media, we may not have a choice.

Read Erwan’s piece about the death of the secret spot.

Follow SurfEXPLORE on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Weibo.

View John Callahan’s 20 Best Surfing Islands and more from SurfExplore on The Inertia.

  • Paul Rose

    The craaaazy thing about the tetrapods in japan is, in some places it makes average waves better. The government quietly admitted after 2011 that tetrapods do nothing to minimize tsunami flow, infact kind of make things worse. I’ve have heard however unreliably that in some cases the contracts between local government and contruction contractors are set for up to 25 years.

    Japan surfrider is a joke they do nothing for coastal care in the way of protecting waves.

    • http://www.facebook.com/John.Seaton.Callahan John Seaton Callahan

      That is true – the tetrapod contagion in Japan has in some places, made for good waves where before there were none or contoured the coastline and offshore bathymetry in ways that has improved local spots in addition to destroying many waves – what concerns many Japanese surfers is there is NO consultation with the surfing community before a tetrapod project is unleashed.

      Surfrider Japan has nothing like the massive budgets of government agencies or the construction industry in Japan, so the end result of any tetrapod project is a lottery – sometimes good but usually bad.

    • http://www.facebook.com/John.Seaton.Callahan John Seaton Callahan

      That is true – the tetrapod contagion in Japan has in some places, made for good waves where before there were none or contoured the coastline and offshore bathymetry in ways that has improved local spots in addition to destroying many waves – what concerns many Japanese surfers is there is NO consultation with the surfing community before a tetrapod project is unleashed.

      Surfrider Japan has nothing like the massive budgets of government agencies or the construction industry in Japan, so the end result of any tetrapod project is a lottery – sometimes good but usually bad.