What Are The Odds She Makes This Barrel?

Perhaps it’s possible to draw a parallel between a big wave surfer and a gambler.

Both are driven by a thrill-seeking nature, likely fueled by similar neurological mechanisms that produce dopamine-powered reward responses in the brain. Each displays a high tolerance for risk and a stubborn willingness to put it all on the line for potentially large, though infrequent, payoffs.

For Laura Coviella, a surfer from the Canary Islands with a knack for the XL+ stuff, “surfing is often like a casino.” With an all-or-nothing mindset, Laura chose her summer destinations within a 24 hour period of spotting a promising swell, increasing her odds of scoring with a little help from modern web forecasts and hollow flying machines.

Shared through her vlog — a format that lends itself so well to the vagrancy and down times that come with a life spent surfing professionally — Laura’s trips were far from hassle-free: delayed flights, broken boards, reef cuts, and the usual hazards encountered while moving through surf destinations around tropical latitudes.

Yet, you couldn’t really call those setbacks “bad luck.” Like a seasoned gambler, Laura knew exactly when to push all her chips forward. And while prime season Indo, Mexico, and Nicaragua aren’t exactly gambles, she walked away from the table a victor.