“My First Wave That Morning Was Probably The Best Wave Of My Life”

During the final week of December in 2023, NOAA Station 46059 — also known as the West California Buoy — spiked around 20ft at 20 seconds from due west. 

In 2024, during the same week, the exact same buoy spiked at the exact same numbers.

A certain reefbreak in Southern California resembled Pipeline on both occasions, and 25-year-old Dylan Hord was there for both of them. 

By now, he’s sat on the first clips for almost two years, finally deciding to drop them as the end section in his latest clip ‘Astro’. 

“So crazy that we got two of the exact same giant swells at the same date, two years in a row,” Dyl remembers. “Those clips at the end were from both of those swells. I’m from Newport area, and I’ve been going down to surf that wave for a while. I’m definitely no local down there, but I showed up and it was big and I saw Skip [McCullough] running out, and he was like, ‘let’s just go.’ Everyone else was watching. So I just got my suit on and ran out. It was probably 7 in the morning, I pretty much paddled out at dark. It was just us and one older guy out there.”

At 10-minutes and 56 seconds into the above clip, Dyl wrangles what he considers the best wave of his life. 

“That long one? That was my first wave of the morning. I think it was probably the best wave of my life. When I came out of the tube, I could hear everybody screaming and I could see ’em all on the cliff right there. All my homies, it was so cool. I’ve never had a moment where I come out of a tube and hear everybody screaming. And, getting a barrel like that in Southern California is pretty hard to do.”

Click above for a journey through Pascuales orbs, Indonesian reef passes, and sand-bottom Mexican spinners — all capped off with a masterclass in wave selection at one of the most deceptive shallow-water venues between Point Conception and Tijuana.