Nathan Florence visited Rio de Janeiro to face off against The Shock. Photo: Nathan Florence // YouTube
When you think of places to find slab waves, Brazil isn’t likely to top the list. However, there’s undoubtedly some monsters out there for the taming. On a recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, Nathan Florence made it his business to do just that.
The spot in question is a wave known as ‘The Shock.” The Brazilian behemoth has the hallmarks of a good slab: it’s heavy, unpredictable and insanely difficult to catch. In other words, it was a perfect place for Florence to add one more stop to his slab tour
“We went out first time to The Shock, you could say I got the full Shock experience,” said Florence afterwards. He ended up catching two waves on the roiling giant. One was big, but he took off too deep, and the other was a tow-in attempt that was foiled by lack of visibility. “The ocean was just non-stop crazy chaos,” he explained. “The chops were as big as the waves, so it was hard to read it, but we did the best we could.”
Then, Nathan added a statement that highlights just how wild a wave The Shock is, considering his track record in heavy water: “These guys are cowboys over here. Whoever decided to start surfing this wave is out of their mind.”
