Rob Machado has spent most of his life in search of waves. His plans depend almost solely on the vagaries of the ocean’s swells and can change at any minute, but there’s one annual trip he never misses. Every year, he heads to France to see his teenage daughter, Macy, who moved from Reunion Island to Cardiff a few years ago.
This time around, the king of style and his daughter took a trip through the Basque Country in northern Spain to have a father-daughter surf session at Wavegarden’s private demo center. “Macy was supposed to be training with the Reunion Island surf team in Hossegor,” Machado said. “But I wanted to bring her here instead, so we could hang out and surf together.”
When Rob and Macy rolled through the countryside in a campervan (of course), the folks at Wavegarden thought they should see everything the man-made wave has to offer. “It’s amazing how much the wave can change and how diverse it is with all the different options,” Machado said. “There are so many choices. Do I want to get barreled; do I want to do turns? It’s tough to make the right call. But every call is the right call.”
And what a session it was. Both Rob and Macy surfed around 50 waves a piece—a session that is unlikely to take place in the ocean—and the sheer number of waves gave Rob ample opportunity to dole out a bit of advice. “I am seriously like tripping out,” he said. “Just the variety of waves, watching her longboard and being able to get barreled and do turns. It encompasses everything.”
On one of the last waves of the day, Rob high fived his daughter as she surfed past him. The scene was reminiscent of that iconic 1995 Pipeline Masters between Machado and Slater. “It was like two legends high fiving”, laughed Macy. “Nah, I am not a legend. I am a legend’s daughter. For me, he’s the king of style. I try to copy him all the time. He’s my favorite surfer.”
