Everybody’s been in Ben Gravy’s shoes at least once in their life. You have a friend visiting from out of town and you just know where you guys can score a good wave. Maybe it’s a secret spot. Maybe you’re just in the know and your intuition is telling you that perfect combination of swell direction, period, size, winds, and tide will come together just right while the rest of the world stays warm and cozy indoors. So you talk it up. You’re pumped. “We’re going to score,” you assure your friend.
And then you don’t. You don’t score at all. In fact, you do the opposite of score. You put your friend through a hellacious drive, made them suit up when it just so happens to be freezing outside, and nervously watched them waste hours waiting for a wave that never came. If there’s one thing worse than getting skunked it’s being the guy who talked their friends into a froth before getting skunked. Now you’ll never be trusted again.
If we can count on two people to go through this much trouble to get into a tanker wave it’s Ben Gravy and Jamie O’Brien. This story has a happy ending…for Ben Gravy.
