The opening wave kind of says it all. Miguel Blanco disappears for just a second, almost certainly swallowed up in the foam ball of a Greenbush tube you could have parked a car in, and then he’s spat out. You can tell by his immediate reaction he’s not sure what just happened. He doesn’t celebrate, he just cups his hands over his mouth. Maybe it’s disbelief. Who knows? Either way, it’s an appropriate way to open up the highlights of what Blanco told us was his “wildest yet most rewarding” adventure ever.
Miguel is currently in Indonesia for the Padang Cup but Tropical Popsicle, his new feature being released in separate parts through September, is all free surf highlights from the Portuguese tube hound. It’s been a busy year for Blanco with a lot of passport stamps collected along the way — Hawaii, Morocco, Portugal, Australia, Fiji — but this particular Indo trip clearly stood out. Not like he’s living in the past or anything, just “processing” all the waves he got in those locations, he tells us. Odds are he won’t have much more time to process those waves and those trips though because his next plan is to be ready for whatever El Niño and the upcoming Northern Hemi winter throws his way. For a hellman like Miguel Blanco, we all know that means tracking purple blobs on computer screens and plenty of last-minute flights.
“I’ll hit Hawaii again,” he says. “Want to go back to Jaws but also surf Mavs and just be open for anything to come.”
