If your online patterns are anything like ours, which is likely, you’ve probably been inundated with Nias footage across every social media entity you’ve ever given an email address to. Big, scary, otherworldly waves reeling in perfect right-hand formation, slamming into Sumatra’s little brother to the west, as the who’s who of freesurfing showed up to get slotted in extreme fashion. Which brought in the hordes of dedicated lensmen looking to capture the footage feeding our wanderlust. Or nightmares.
Like this well-shot session, that seemingly lasted for an entire month. Kudos SURFER: after all these years navigating the supremely-independent world of surf while tip-toeing the complicated operating systems of the corporate media world, the outlet can still find the talent, no doubt.
Do yourself a favor and turn the music off and just watch Ryan “Chachi” Craig’s drone work, which pretty much nails everything about the emotion of Nias at this size: the intense double-ups transforming into heaving barrels, the scramble of the entire lineup, like an organism itself, each individual working to set up for takeoff as one moving life form. You can almost smell the heavy, Bintang-stained breathing as they move into position.
