João Guedes // Namíbia - video

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Dispatch

It's been a lean couple of years over Skeleton Bay way with few swells gracing that divine sandspit. Did you know Skeleton Bay actually lies within the tropics? Yep, it's even further north than Rockhampton here on the Oz East Coast, which, considering surfers wrap themselves in full length neoprene, says something about the frigid Benguela Current. It also explains why so few swells break there, it's a fair distance from source to delivery and then the swell must have enough mojo to turn 90 degress and begin its climactic final act. Anything less and it's a dud.

João Guedes was part of a Portuguese team who recently got it kinda sorta doing its thing. There were no barrels rivalling Benji Brand's marathon effort of a few years back but João jagged a couple of head dips - relatively speaking.

Comments

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 1:06pm

Couple quick little in-n-outs

surfstarved's picture
surfstarved's picture
surfstarved Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 4:29pm

So when were all those other clips that we've been constantly bombarded with over the past couple of years filmed? Have they been sitting on them, using the drip release technique to keep us hungry?

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 4:38pm

If you've seen some clips recently then, yeah, it may have been drip fed because the last significant swell was June 2014. That same winter saw Koa Smith, Dale Staples and Benji Brand get incredible barrels. There were plenty more, of course, but those clips stand out.

And since then...? Precious little. I know a few guys have made the trip and got skunked. It just hasn't broken that often.

wally's picture
wally's picture
wally Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 5:08pm

Strider Wasilewski instagrammed about his trip to Namibia in the last couple of weeks, just before Trestles. He was trippin' out.
Click on the video. It is some wave.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 7:16pm

Hey Wally, Craig and I are following up some info on the state of the wave.

Stay tuned...

goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot's picture
goofyfoot Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 8:03pm

Jesus that's unbeleivable

Nick Bone's picture
Nick Bone's picture
Nick Bone Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 5:26pm

Link of the year wally

wally's picture
wally's picture
wally Tuesday, 13 Sep 2016 at 5:43pm

Yep, it's a beaut. Strider summed up his experience thus.

"stridersworldDay 255, 2016.... True Story: This happened on day two of my solo trip to Namibia, Africa! I traveled 33 hrs in hopes of getting waves like this. I surfed 16 hrs in two days and now back to LA which will take me 36 hrs. To the average bear this doesn't make sense, but one wave and you realize why you follow your heart. Never have I seen a wave go this top to bottom for almost 2 miles... I honestly think the right wave here and you can get tubed the whole way!!!! I also haven't been this beaten up since the Code Red swell in Tahiti. Scorpioned, tacoed, sucked over the falls and slammed on my board only to get sucked back over and pinned on the bottom and hitting my head so hard I was seeing stars when I came up and opened my eyes... All of it 100% worth it with the waves you do make, the people you will meet and the wildlife you will see! "

Jordy Smith was there as well.

saltman's picture
saltman's picture
saltman Wednesday, 14 Sep 2016 at 8:31am

Solo trip? really Strider
theres a cameraman and 2 others in the car with you
Raspberry lives up to his reputation for hyperbole

wally's picture
wally's picture
wally Wednesday, 14 Sep 2016 at 10:04am

I think he may have fairly randomly met those people there. In the car, one asked him whether he was a goofyfoot, so they didn't know a lot about him.

mick-free's picture
mick-free's picture
mick-free Wednesday, 14 Sep 2016 at 10:39am

Koa and Benji are holding footage from swell earlier this year. Think it will be good something about both of them sharing the tube.

Be hard to get a 4wd next swell. Place will be packed.