Jamie O’Brien is wondering if this is the best wave in the world. Photo: Jamie O’Brien//YouTube
Jamie O’Brien posed the perhaps rhetorical question in his latest vlog: “Is this the best wave on the planet?” Not to give away any spoilers, but it’s not the best wave on the planet. Still, I respect the need to please YouTube’s algorithm, and that doesn’t take away from the magic of a square, sand-bottom right cranking down a beach somewhere around the world.
O’Brien and crew didn’t disclose where they went, even going through the painstaking editing process of blurring out any scenery reflected in O’Brien’s glasses. The only hints they give the audience are that it’s a long way from Hawaii, there are some dunes near the beach, and they chose African music for the soundtrack.
In some ways, it resembles the sand-bottom right-hander that Mick Fanning made famous in 2017, or the wave Caity Simmers and Soli Bailey ride in Surfline’s Maps to Nowhere. It could be one of them, or it could be neither.
This wave served up shallow, sucking tubes, but the pace looked tough to surf if O’Brien was struggling to stay behind the curtain for more than a few seconds. It appears this trip was done earlier this year, because O’Brien announced last month that he would be sidelined for several months after getting a pterygium removed from his eye. Apparently, he’s got content in the archive to keep the media machine rolling during his downtime.
