On December 18, 2015, Kelly Slater broke the internet. On that day, KS Wave Co. uploaded the first video of his wave pool in an undisclosed location. The only hint: it was a secret spot about 110 miles from the coast. Days later the internet had discovered the wave’s location: Lemoore, California. Google Earth images seemed to verify the claims.
In a rebuttal of sorts to Kelly’s historic drop, Mick Fanning and the folks at Ripcurl released an edit yesterday of Mick surfing a reeling righthand pointbreak in an (again) undisclosed locale. The internet is currently buzzing with speculation.
Pooling the comments section of the Youtube video itself, there are three schools of thought. The first, and least common, is that it’s a spot in the Caribbean. “Carribean (sic) island…. that’s as far as I’ll go,” says wjb72. A few folks also claim Oman or Yemen. But the third and most popular school of thought is that it’s somewhere in Africa, some say east, some say west.
“Look at the clues!” say the Youtube commenters, like the veritable internet sleuths they are. “Sun rises in the east, its warm and if someone is taking a dump on the beach its 3rd world. East Africa,” says Shawn Kenny. Others speculate Mozambique, specifically. Or maybe west? Angola?
Commenter Peter Katkov simply posted a link to Google Maps, with the image above of a solid looking set up in Mauritania.
Could it be?
Carl Jason Meyer doesn’t seem to think this is the first time the wave was ridden, either. “Same spot as this… and only the deep local Africans can tell where it is. #imfromafrica #iknowthespot,” he says with the following video of Jordy Smith (see :48).
The internet is mid freak out right now. And it’s worth recognizing how incredible it is that in spite of the incredible technological advances of our modern world there still exists an oasis like this.
We’ll see if the dust settles on a final location in the next few days. Then again, in such a tech-centric world, maybe a secret like this is worth keeping.
