A little while back, Nathan Florence went to Tahiti. It was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment trip, as many of the best surf trips are, and the gamble paid off in a big way. But that trip, like all trips — unless you’re unlucky with acid — came to an end. He headed home to the North Shore of Oahu, intent on surfing the same swell he had just surfed.
On the way there, he thought of a question: could he ride the same wave at home as he rode in Tahiti back on Oahu? “That same swell that hits Tahiti — a southwest direction — hits Tahiti first,” he explained. “It takes its time traveling across the Pacific, and it hits Oahu, south side. This swell was so big that there were actually waves on the North Shore as the west wrapped around the island. That same swell hits the south side of Oahu, and it’s huge… the best part though? I’m going to catch the same wave that I surfed in Tahiti. You better believe it, buster.”
And while it’s impossible to prove whether or not he actually did, I had the same question back in 2015. It was slightly different, of course. Instead of Tahiti to Hawaii, I pondered if it was possible to surf a wave in Puerto, hop on a plane, and catch the same wave at Malibu. The math is all here, if you’re interested in transferring it to the Tahiti/Oahu question. Leave Laird out of the equation, if you like, because (spoiler alert) in my version, he drops in on you.
