Watch: This Is One Of The 10 Best Waves Ever Ridden On A Surfboard - Stab Mag

Watch Season 2, Episode 10 of How Surfers Get Paid — The Bounty Hunters

894 Views
Apparently Pyzels are made to go over foamballs. Framegrab: Joao Tudella
[stab_like_button]

Watch: This Is One Of The 10 Best Waves Ever Ridden On A Surfboard

Nathan Florence courtesy of Ireland.

elsewhere // May 13, 2023
Words by August Howell
Reading Time: < 1 minute

“I do believe you can have a left of your life and a right of your life. I feel like what I got in this session was probably the right of my life. 

Avid sci-fi and fantasy reader Nathan Florence is a big fan of The Lord of the Rings. The acclaimed film trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, but Nathan has excelled in making magic and slaying monsters in another country of rolling green hills. Remember that Mullaghmore tunnel last year?

Fresh off a Teahupo’o stint that fell somewhat short of expectations, Nathan ditched the gents towing six-footers for one of Ireland’s renowned slabs. On a mint 7’, Nathan found what he claims to be the right of his life. He couldn’t have been any deeper if he were a dwarf in the mines of Moria. The combination of knifing the drop, hurdling the foam ball, and blasting into the channel was so profound that his only comparison was that Teahupo’o jaw-dropper seven years ago that arguably kickstarted his heavy water career… which is fascinating considering this is a man who could see Pipeline (and Backdoor) from his childhood living room. 

“There’s a certain feeling you get when you kick out,” Nathan said of those one-in-a-million waves. “There’s an overwhelming feeling of gratitude, appreciation and disbelief at how you got so lucky as to be living the life you’re living there at that very moment that that wave came through. And you were in the spot and everything, every little piece of timing, every microsecond, you made the right on the wave decision to be as deep as you possibly could and still make it.”

We have no qualms stating that this is (easily) one of the 10 best waves ever ridden on a surfboard.

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

How To A.I.-Proof Your Life With Skip McCullough

“Fences? Laundry? It’s not sexy. But it makes money. That’s the bottom line.”

Jul 17, 2026

How Surfers Spend Their Money

We asked 7,500 surfers where their next paycheck is going.

Jul 16, 2026

How Do You Score Ethan Ewing (Musically)?

The three musicians who soundtracked Ethan Ewing’s SITD drop their playlists and surf-music wisdom.

Jul 16, 2026

Joyride: The AI Exacta Pro ’97 By Lost Surfboards

Are glass-ons back?

Jul 14, 2026

2026 Surf100 Challenge Series Presented By Pacifico, Episode 04

A right, a left, and four very frustrating heats.

Jul 13, 2026

Is The Y2K Trend Dead? | StabMic Ep. 22

Dane, Dooma, and Sam discuss the state of surf cinema.

Jul 13, 2026

Op-Ed: How Australia Can Revolutionise Shark Attack Prevention Using Drones

And why New South Wales' $120 million shark mitigation program is only scratching the surface.

Jul 10, 2026

The Beautiful & The Damned: A 2026 Challenger Series Preview

Featuring 16 surfers who may just ascend to the 2027 CT.

Jul 9, 2026

Steel Vagina, Choc Tops + The Longest Handshake In Surfing

Tom Carroll on the Wherethefakawis, Bob Hawke and the absurdity of staying sponsored for 50…

Jul 9, 2026

The Best Surfing I’ve Ever Seen: Jason ‘Mini’ Blanchard

Dane Reynolds passes the torch to John Florence at an unbelievable Japanese river bar.

Jul 7, 2026

Infinite Chlorine, An Excess Of Death, El Niño & l’italiano

Surfing's 2026 Q2 report.

Jul 6, 2026

The Man In The Arena | StabMic Ep. 21

Why is Griffin Colapinto quoting Theodore Roosevelt?

Jul 6, 2026

The World Is Crumbling. How’s Your Subscription?

Take our Stab Premium survey, maybe win a free year’s subscription.

Jul 5, 2026

The Hughie Problem, The Dane Problem, The Bobby/Gabe Problem

What's in the Stab chamber currently?

Jul 3, 2026

We Tested North America’s Newest, Largest, And Most Powerful Wavegarden Pool

DSRT SURF is unlike anything we’ve surfed.

Jul 2, 2026

One Of The World’s Best Air Waves Just Joined The CT 

How to surf Cloud 9, according to 2018 QS winner Skip McCullough.

Jul 1, 2026

Victoria Vergara Leaves Rip Curl And Starts Her Own Swimwear Brand

The French surfer/model on building ViVi and partnering with a sporting goods giant.

Jul 1, 2026

Teahupo’o Has A Boat Problem

“Until it gets sorted, they’re just gonna close the lineup every time it gets over…

Jun 30, 2026
Advertisement