Skipping passport control and surfing into another country can get you into trouble, apparently. Photo: Screenshot//Ben Gravy
Ben Gravy has surfed in 26 countries. But for his 27th country, he decided to enter in style — skipping passport control and surfing his way across international borders.
While Gravy was visiting the Dominican Republic, he devised a plan to visit Haiti, too. At the southern border of the two countries is an A-frame, river-mouth break that, apparently, gets good on its day. If you take off on the left, you can cruise across the border and into Haiti.
The day Gravy showed up, it wasn’t exactly firing, but he went through with his plan to check country 27 off his list.
If you haven’t been keeping up on the news, Haiti’s president was assassinated in 2021 and now gangs control more than 90 percent of the country’s capital. The United Nations says the country is experiencing escalating violence, entrenched criminal networks and mounting humanitarian needs — not exactly a place you want to get arrested for illegally crossing a border.
And, yes, Gravy and his entourage did get detained for illegally entering Haiti.
“After a long explanation of what we were up to, the general ended up thinking the whole idea was so stupid and we were actually so crazy that he didn’t know what to do with us,” Gravy said. “He clearly communicated that if he wanted to, he could lock us up and throw away the key for a long, long time — but the fact that he didn’t honestly kind of makes him the man.”
The surfers ended up getting off with a slap on the wrist and an armed police escort back to their car. For those looking to mimic what Gravy pulled off, might be best to think twice.
“I can’t believe we did it — it was dumb, and we were about as lucky as you could possibly get,” Gravy said.
