Every surf break has already been discovered. I don’t mean that in the cynical, “things were better, back in the day,” kind of way, but, rather, in the practical, “satellites and Google Maps exist,” kind of way. Gone are the days of taking a flight to a remote tropical island and finding a place where surfers haven’t been, a-la Morning of the Earth. Those frontiers are gone forever.
However, there is still one kind of frontier that remains. In order to find new waves, surfers have to challenge the definition of what a surf break actually is. The question is no longer where are waves, but what are waves.
There’s two main ways to ask that question: The first is by using new technology to make unridable waves ridable (see: tow-in surfing, foil surfing). The second is by going to places that were previously considered too dangerous for any sane person to paddle out at (see: Kerby Brown).
Zeke Lau is going for option two. His latest YouTube video was shot at a rocky nightmare on the east side of Oahu, during a huge east swell. It’s a place that only someone like Lau or Mason Ho would even think to paddle out in.
As it turns out, it is ridable – but just barely. “Pretty sketchy wave,” says Lau, just before paddling out. “Not much makeable, but there’s some visions to be had.”
