The waves weren’t good, but at least they were cold. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Slushy waves don’t look real. Far before AI began making videos of people with too many fingers, clips of people surfing waves made mostly of ice had the internet spellbound. But they are indeed real, and Ben Gravy, a man who wants to surf every possible type of wave, knew he needed to paddle out.
“What an incredible novelty wave surfing experience surfing the historic frozen slushy waves in Montauk, New York,” he wrote. “I knew this opportunity wouldn’t last forever and we scored it on one of two days that the waves themselves were actually ridable. The day before and the day after were completely frozen over. A true phenomenon and a phenomenal moment in time.”
In order to surf those weird waves, Ben Gravy needed to get up early. Four-thirty kind of early. He left his home in New Jersey, pointed himself towards Montauk (a wonderful surf town, for those uninitiated), and hoped for the best. Luckily for Ben, his definition of “best” is pretty loose. If he can have fun, it’s the best. And Ben Gravy has proven time and time again that he does not need stereotypically “good” waves to have fun.
“It’s one of the coldest days of the winter so far,” he said in the pre-dawn darkness. “We’ve become aware of the slushy wave phenomenon in Montauk, New York. Hopefully we have some contacts there, and we’re going for it.”
He did have a few contacts there, one of whom was James Katsipis, a Montauk-based photographer who knows the best spots to be in the area on any given swell. Katsipis had the 411, and his information proved to be correct. And sure, the waves weren’t all-time, but as Ben likes to say, it was “for the dream.”
