Nathan Florence’s Scottish Scare Keeps The Clicks Coming

In less than nine hours, Nathan Florence’s Scottish send-off has racked up more than 46,000 views on YouTube. 

Content runs in the Florence family, albeit in different ways. In a recent Stab interview with John Florence (coming soon), the world’s best sailor who surfs explained how his younger brother is carving out his own lane on the YouTube highway. 

“Someone could do a carve and a backflip, and it’ll get attention for a day and be forgotten,” John said. “But my brother has a video of him duckdiving for 20 minutes straight, and it just keeps getting watched. It’s hilarious.”

Those 20-minute duckdives are among Nathan’s strongest performers on YouTube. His three most popular videos on YT, all over one million views, are his GoPro clips from Pipeline and Jaws. No fancy editing, no voiceover, and no music. Just video straight from his maw to your eyeballs. 

As discussed in How Surfers Get Paid Episode 1, in terms of YouTube subscribers for Hawaiian surfers, NF (249K) ranks second only to Jamie O’Brien (850K). He’s capturing things every surfer can relate to (paddling, duck diving, wipeout) but in exceptional circumstances (Jaws, Pipeline, Teahupoʻo). It takes a concoction of talent, personality, and hustle to keep the masses engaged. 

“It’s incredible what Nate’s been able to create for himself,” John continued. “He’s got his own space in a world that was so dominated by competing or doing backflips*.”

Nathan kicks out eight times at this terrifying excuse for a rideable wave (you’ll get it eventually, Ben Larg!) The first wave isn’t ridden until nearly 10 minutes in, but the rest of the video is just as compelling, if not even more than the surfing. 

The Hawaiian and his Scottish companion first navigate a minefield of foam to and from the cliff. As Nathan mentions, getting stuck in overhead foam can be a dangerous situation, potentially even fatal, as was the case in the tragic incident in the Netherlands in 2020. After dodging monsters throughout the session, Nathan and Ben paddle half a mile to find the nearest exit.

Press play and watch Nathan expertly pick apart this spooky Scottish peak. But note the GoPro in his mouth. We’ll probably be seeing more of this session shortly.

*Funnily enough, Nathan can actually do backflips on a surfboard.