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“We could see some big, beautiful lines, but it wasn’t even breaking in the morning,” said Natxo Gonzalez. “It wasn’t the 60-foot swell we were waiting for, but at Mully, anything is possible.”
The Basque charger’s experience at Ireland’s Mullaghmore perhaps mirrored many of the elite European surfers with Erin. A possibly overhyped swell, a sense of disappointment, but some true moments of memorable magic in what was still the biggest summer swell in living memory.
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“Mundaka was really heavy that first day. Too heavy for an old man like me,” said Kepa Acero. “It wasn’t the size, but the thickness. A super long period, and really west. At low tide, it was just the young guns who were getting amongst it.”
Of a similar age, but far less modest, is Paul Evans, the surf journo and WSL broadcaster based in Capbreton, France. While French big wave chargers hit Le Nord, or towed the outer banks of Hossegor, Evans and Aussie expat Darren Broadbridge traveled down to surf Parlementia, the big wave right at Guethary.
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“People were wearing flotation vests out there. I didn’t, I just wore shorts. I surfed a 10-foot gun and caught a couple of inside head-high waves,” Evans said. “There were some quite big ones, but it wasn’t quite as big as advertised. Like so many things in life, it was a little bit underwhelming on the day. Kind of gray and a bit overcast.”
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We also called Portuguese legend Frederico “Kikas” Morais, as the early Supertubos forecast looked pretty special. “I don’t want to talk about it,” was his uncharacteristic reply. “I’m in Pantin for the European Qualifying Series event. It’s bigger than Nazare.” Pantin is an exposed beachbreak on the northwest tip of Spain that is a known swell magnet. Freesurfing footage would later surface of Freddie demolishing a right-hander that looked like massive Margaret River. The competition rattled on, with eight-foot waves and a 45-minute paddle out.
The real Nazaré, meanwhile, was big, but not huge, as the westerly swell direction negated the canyon’s teepee effect. We checked in with Andrew “Cottie” Cotton for an update. “I’m in Chile. Not only that, but I’m snowboarding. I couldn’t be geographically or mentally, further away from this swell.” You can’t be everywhere.
Supertubos, however, was copping the swell head on. There were some moments of magic among the madness. Joaquim Chaves threaded the needle through Giant Haystacks for one of the best waves of the entire swell.
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Meanwhile, back at Mullaghmore, with the 60-foot swell not appearing, a crew that included Nathan Florence and Nic Von Rupp joined locals like Conor Maguire and Gearoid McDaid in a paddle session as the tide dropped. “I surfed a slab in the morning, and then went out at Mullaghmore. I’m not sure if it was the biggest swell of this summer,” laughed McDaid, “but there was enough juice and real power to make it special.”
Gonzalez paddled out on his trademark black and white striped 9’0” Pukas gun, caught a smallish one, and then waited an hour and a half for a set. The second one was the biggest, and the locals called the long-time Mullaghmore visitor into it.
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“There was some initial backwash, but I could see the wave was so clean down the inside, so I just tried to hold down my position,” said Natxo. “The vision was incredible, and it spat me into the channel. Everybody was screaming. That was the best moment, celebrating with the community here who have always treated me with so much respect. I was the happiest man in the whole world.”
In Mundaka, Kepa and his old bones started to feel their way into the session as the high tide made life slightly more manageable. Thick lines were still roping down the hard-packed summer sand, but a few crucial ingredients were missing.
“There wasn’t many barrels because of the wind. You need offshore in Mundaka. That’s the magic touch. It was fun, but not epic, but it looks like there are waves for a few days.”
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Our humble hero, Evans, was getting his kicks in other respects. From the parking lot overlooking Parlementia and the big wave left across the channel at Avalanches, he could see the mythical big wave spot of Belharra breaking on the reef a mile out to sea, always an indicator of true size, with foiler Matt Etxebarne hovering across the open ocean left.
“My friend Darren nearly drowned and ended up puking because he made the mistake of trying to get the sets on the peak,” said Evans. “When I got out, there were loads of people watching and some kind of cool-looking Parisian chicks. They tried to ask some questions about what I’d just achieved. I did my best to answer them, but they knew I was on another level, both spiritually and physically. I suppose I always will be.”
Perhaps that is a fitting way to wrap a rare summer swell that, after delivering on the East Coast of the Americas, produced waves from Morocco to Norway. They perhaps weren’t always as good as the hype, but for August, it was a unicorn burst of quality and quantity.
