Photo: Quentin Turko // YouTube
Silverbacks is a wave that lives up to its primal name. Equal parts aggressive, unpredictable and awe-inspiring, the Panamanian break is not for the faint-hearted. That hasn’t stopped Quentin Turko from making it his mission to hitch a ride on the beast, though. This past March, he finally did, and he’s got a brand new edit to prove it.
The moment was the culmination of three years of effort in which the Outer Banks native has returned to Panama for months at a time, working as a surf guide and waiting for the right swell to come. Now that it finally has, I spoke to him about what it takes to wrestle with the gorilla.
So you’ve been surf guiding at Red Frog Bungalows. What’s that been like?
It’s been really cool. Such a great surf resort. The waves there in Bocas del Toro are so great through the winter, from November until April. I think it’s one of the most consistent places in the world during that time period. Even the days when there’s not a lot of swell, you can still surf the beachbreaks most days. There’s always something to do. That’s what I love. It’s not like one of those places in the world where you go and if there’s not waves, you lose your mind.
You said it took you three years to surf Silverbacks. What was the process of getting to that moment?
Yeah, so this past year was my third year out there surf guiding, and there just weren’t really any big swells for those three years, which is crazy. We had a couple swells that kind of almost broke out there, but the winds weren’t the greatest and it wasn’t quite big enough. So I just had so much build up wanting to surf that wave, because it’s the most famous wave out there. Everyone’s always asking about the wave, all the guests at the resort. It was always hard for me to say, like, “Oh, actually, I haven’t got to surf it, yet.”
So then when you saw that first swell coming in, what was the lead up to that?
We’ve had a couple swells this winter on paper that looked like Silverbacks-sized swells, and they just under-delivered. When that first swell that hit towards the end of March popped up, we’d had a couple weeks of not much swell, and I was like, “I don’t believe that’s actually going to be that big.” Then that morning we woke up and, sure enough, it was the biggest swell of the year. It was really cool because it wasn’t super hyped up, so there was only a couple of us out that day. It also wasn’t that big of Silverbacks and it was a pretty short-lived window. Once the tide started sucking out, the swell faded, but it was so cool to get to surf it.
Then it was the second swell, when Nathan and Ivan [Florence] came out, that was forecasted way big. That one had a lot of hype and anticipation surrounding Silverbacks, which had just broken 10 days prior. It was really exciting, expecting it to break this time, and it delivered. It was a lot bigger than the first time, definitely way more of the real deal out there.
You said the conditions were pretty difficult, and it’s kind of just a tricky break in general. What is it like to surf?
So it breaks kind of on the edge of one island, but it’s several hundred yards off of that island, and it’s way out on the tip. Then there’s another island like a mile away and there’s a channel in between the two. So, when you have the offshore winds, it ends up just funneling down in between those islands and it gets really choppy and rough out there with the offshores. So, both of the swells, when I surfed it, it was stormy, and it went from kind of side onshore winds to hard offshore winds.
It was so challenging, because of the wind coming up the face of the waves and making these crazy ribs and chatter. It was glassy when the wave broke, but paddling into it was really tricky. And because that wave breaks so far out, you don’t really have a lineup. You’re like, using the mountains in the distance. It’s not that easy.
Then there’s kind of three different zones where the wave wedges, depending on how it comes in. You’re really looking for that chip shot – there’s a tiny little, like 10- to 15-foot zone, where if you get the right wave it’ll let you chip in, and if you’re a little bit too deep, you can’t even catch the wave. The left to right playing field is pretty far, and then the takeoff zone shifts. So it’s really like a 100-yard circle of takeoff zone, depending on how exactly the wave hits.
Speaking of how difficult is, at the top of the edit, you had one pretty crazy wipeout. Tell me about that?
That was so cool. That was the biggest wave I’ve seen come in there at Silverbacks, out of the two swells. There was a set that hit right before that looked really big, but then missed the outer chip-in spot of the reef. Then that next set came and I was like, “Alright, I’m just gonna commit to it, hold my ground on the inside, and not kind of paddle out to the bigger chip-in spot.” Sure enough, it just came in at the right angle and missed that outer chip-in, and I was in kind of the perfect spot (but not really).
I kind of hesitated for just a second. I feel like if I would have really started digging harder, I might have given myself a better chance of making it. I got a couple good paddles and I really thought I was going to make it, but there was just a little warble in the wave and I was right on the edge of that spot.
I just ended up disconnecting for a second. When I reconnected after that little split-second air drop, I just cartwheeled. I just ended up back-flopping and looking at the lip throwing over me, thinking, “Oh my God, I thought this was gonna be the wave of my life, and now I’m about to take this wave straight to the forehead.”
I got smoked, but I really wasn’t even thinking about the wipeout, because I was so mad at myself. As I was getting smoked, I was thinking, “Oh my God. I can’t believe I didn’t give it an extra paddle.”
Have a gander at Quentin Turko’s edit, below.
