Photo: Nathan Florence // YouTube
The latest video from Nathan Florence starts off in pitch black. The North Shore slab hunter and his brother John John Florence have snuck out under cover of moonlight to try to beat the crowd. The moment came on day five of a recent massive swell event, in what shaping up to be “one of the most insane winter seasons we have ever had,” according to Florence.
As far as the moonlight session went – Nathan and John did manage to beat the crowd, but at the expense of any actual surfable waves. “John and I paddled out at first light, moonset, and we sat for five hours and I think we cumulatively maybe caught four waves,” explained Nathan afterwards.
However, once the sun rose and the rest of Pipeline’s notoriously competitive crowd showed up, the real game began. In the daylight, cavernous barrels, heaving whitewater and thundering walls greeted the Florence brothers – along with dozens of other surfers to dodge while riding them.
