It’s almost the end of the year, and the ‘best of’ posts are coming in hot. Yesterday, Koa Smith posted a highlight reel of his best tube rides at Skeleton Bay. Not to be outdone, Nathan Florence just uploaded a compilation with a POV view of 13 barrels at 13 different waves around the world. It’s a compilation of rides that most surfers would be lucky to experience in a lifetime, and all of it was from this year alone.
The classics are all represented: Jaws, Pipeline, Teahupo’o. However, there’s also a selection of more esoteric waves like the fearsome slabs of The Box and Shipstern Bluff, or rides from his most recent sojourns to northern Scotland. It’s a who’s who of the most perfect tubes around the world, ridden by a master of the artform.
Say what you will about POV footage, but for most of these waves, this is likely the closest any of us will get to riding some of these monsters. I’ll take watching mouth-cam footage with muffled audio to getting pounded into oblivion at Shippies any day.
