There are still places on earth where empty lineups rule the land. Yeah, they’re usually hard to get to, and yeah, a lot of the time the waves aren’t exactly user-friendly, but they do exist–one just has to have the gumption to get there. That’s how the trip in Rip Curl’s latest episode of The Search became a reality.
Ted Grambeau, an Australian photographer, called up the Rip Curl office and told them of a place he knew about. The forecast was about to turn the place into a veritable treasure-trove of tubes. It wasn’t a place for everyone, though. “This place… the surf… it’s not for the faint-hearted,” he told them. “If we are going, we are going in search of some of the most hard-core waves you’ll find. It’s remote, it’s dangerous, and we will be on the edge.”
Two days later, Ted, along with Bruno Santos, Guillermo Satt, and videographer Jon Frank stepped off a plane. They spent the next few days scoring harder than anyone expected–except Ted, of course. Thanks to decades of studying, he knew just how good this place could get. After scouring Google Earth, he said to himself “Oh my god, this little volcanic outcrop is in complete line with some of the heaviest swells in existence!”
