The Only Wave Worth A $3,000 Plane Ticket

Oliver Kurtz’s lifetime-wave was supposed to be posted on Stab‘s Instagram.

Then, just minutes before our social media dork was about to hit publish on the clip, Koa Smith dropped the wave.

You know the one – two minutes long, eight total tubes, the best wave ever recorded etc.

So Oliver got screwed. (Sorry Ollie!)

But if it’s any consolation, we’re more than happy to publish the above short film, featuring Oliver and Brett Barley’s Namibian adventure, including a 20-second barrel from Brett (thus completing his goal for the trip) and the two (2!) best waves of Oliver Kurtz’s life. 

These incredible rides came as a result of the duo’s last-minute decision to fly across the world, a couple heart-dropping GoPro malfunctions, and presumably, in Brett’s case, having to placate a justifiably enraged spouse*. (He missed their ninth wedding anniversary for the swell!)

Oh, and did we mention Brett and Ollie paid $3,000 apiece just for the flights?

*UPDATE: After speaking with Brett this morning, it’s become clear that his spouse in fact NOT enraged, but rather stoked for her husband to partake in such a joyous venture, despite the arbitrary annual celebration of their wedding he would miss in the process. In my experience this is quite an uncommon to response to such a circumstance, which makes Brett an even luckier fella than we already knew him to be.