It takes a lot for Nate Florence to pull back. But The Right IS a lot. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Nathan Florence is a big fan of surfing waves most people don’t want to surf. Well, most people who surf probably would like to surf Nate’s favorite kinds of waves, but most people are well aware that they just can’t. Nate can, though. He can more times than most, anyway, but sometimes things go wrong.
The Right is a famously difficult wave to surf, especially without the help of a PWC. Nate, as Nate is wont to do, decided he’d give it a go. That’s because he’s a lover of slabs, and there’s no slab quite like The Right.
When he paddled out, there were just a few others in the lineup. It was a big day — lully, but big — and as Nate and the others bobbed around waiting for a good one, it became quickly apparent that it was very, very big. And when it gets very, very big, it gets very, very dangerous.
At one point, a surfer took a heavy beating. When he came up, he had blood coming from both ears, possibly as a result of burst eardrums. Nathan and his team have made a habit of putting out just about every session they have, good, bad, or ugly. This one, however, gave Nate a bit of pause.
“This one was a little different,” he said. “I almost felt like I didn’t want to put the vid out. But then I just thought, ‘you know what? It is what it is.’ I put a ton of pressure on myself to catch a good one; really wanted to just do it. To paddle a legit one at The Right. Obviously, just totally failed. I tried for three hours and just couldn’t get it done. The speed of it, the shifting of it… there’s a lot going on out there.”
With Nate’s stature in surfing, it’s understandable that he feels as though he needs to catch the biggest and the best waves. When he doesn’t, however, he gets a little down on himself.
“It’s embarrassing and frustrating to not get the one,” he explained. “Nowadays I feel like I have to prove myself even more, but that goal was just based on me wanting to push my own limits. I’d watched so much footage of it and just thought, ‘I can do it for sure.’ And I think I can do it. It’s just going to take that right day, right swell.”
He’s not giving up, not by any means. He’s just taking this session as a learning experience. And that’s what the best of the best do.
