“Surfers are selfish!” “Surfers are lazy!” “Even the best surfers do nothing but chuck buckets and get barreled!” And yes, “some of our heroes are assholes.” But in response to these types of comments, I present to you an answer: one man by the name of Nate Zoller.
To be specific, one surfer, writer, photographer, climber, and travel enthusiast named Nate Zoller. A California native, the man spends most of the year adventuring off to gnarly locations to find perfect waves. But he’s not just living the surfer’s dream, he’s making the world a better place while he’s at it.
On April 10, Zoller released a new edit titled CACIQUE, described as “the result of a swell chase combined with a Waves for Water initiative. A successful trip, consisting of righthand point breaks each morning and helping to install water filtration systems at local schools in the afternoons.”
Waves for Water, founded by professional surfer Jon Rose in 2009, defines their mission as “rooted in one simple idea: ‘do what you love and help along the way.’ It’s about following our hearts and plugging purpose into our passions. We encourage people to look at aid work or humanitarianism as a way of life, rather than just a way to ‘give back.'” Nate hit the nail on the head by surfing and giving back all in one strike mission.
Sure enough, the edit above, coming in at just under five minutes long, is packed full of clips of Nate executing some smooth, powerful turns on stunning green, Mexican, pointbreak waves. Below the video, Nate penned a heartfelt thank you to the people he met on his trip: “Thanks to all the locals for sharing your waves. Muchas gracias por todo!”
Zoller’s YouTube channel currently has a humble 29 subscribers and 4 published videos. But the other videos are hidden gems: “Outer Island Surfing” showcases an adventurous session at an unnamed break, “Nate Zoller Mexico Tubes” shows the innermost limits of Mexican tuberiding; the view from the inside. The coolest part about Nate’s channel is that not only does he surf in the films, he also edits and films many of them. And in CACIQUE, some of the footage was filmed by his brother!
At any rate, Zoller’s not making these edits for clout, he’s just scoring for the love of… well, surfing. The comment section on CACIQUE reflects this passion: one user by the name of Adam Mazor comments, “Surfing reminds me a bit of Mason Ho. Ripping!” I couldn’t agree more.
