Any Port In A Storm, Sure, But If We’re Taking Requests… - Stab Mag

Episode 3 of EAST with Harry Bryant is LIVE, presented by Kona Big Wave and Vans.

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Strand us here please, engine gods. Please and thank you. Amen.

Any Port In A Storm, Sure, But If We’re Taking Requests…

JJF accidentally discovers Panama’s version of Malibu/The Pass.

elsewhere // Sep 16, 2026
Words by Ethan Davis
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Hurry up and wait.

Going fast and going far often require two different strategies. Sometimes the quickest route forward involves sitting still for a while.

Hares and tortoises, all the way down.

Strava App about to cop a flogging.

After crossing the Panama Canal, the Florences ran into engine trouble. The thingamajig connecting the engine to the prop, otherwise known as the sail drive, was being eggy.

“We wanted to haul out and do some work on the sail drives before crossing to the Galapagos. The only problem was the boatyard wasn’t very protected from swell and two bigger south swells came in back to back. We never got a chance to haul out, but that just meant we got to surf a really fun right point that we had no idea even existed.”

Add a thousand heads and Laird Hamilton on a SUP and BANG, you’re right back in Topanga.

Being stranded at a boatyard by swell sucks. But stumbling into a soft, long, running right that looks like some Panamanian lovechild of Malibu and The Pass?

That’ll fix it.

I can only imagine how perplexed this girl must’ve been, checking out her local rockpools, only to raise her head and find John John Florence gliding past.

How does JJF appear like to the surfing illiterate?

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