If you think about it, scoring the best wave of your life or missing out on it can literally come down to heads or tails.
There are certainly no secrets when it comes to once-in-a-blue-moon swells gracing whichever coastline is closest to you, but getting the best of that swell is a different story. That requires planning, analyzing, making tough decisions, and ultimately…guessing. Then second-guessing. At least that’s the experience for Rémi Arauzo and Léo Havion when something cruises through the Atlantic and their goal is to get France’s best barrels.
“Even if the forecasts are exceptional, you can be in the wrong place or have the wrong timing,” Arauzo says. For years, he and Havion have combined their knowledge of swell forecasting and familiarity with the Basque Country to meticulously plot out all-time sessions. Sometimes they fail. Sometimes they score. It’s literally a coin flip.
