Big Wave Surfer Nathan Florence Faces Carnage and Glory During XXL Black Friday Swell
This year's post-Thanksgiving swell is going down in history as the "Black Friday" swell.
The North Shore's outer reefs turned on, the wind stayed calm, and all of the elements came together for perfect, giant waves.
Definitely something to be grateful for.
"Surfer of the Year" Nathan Florence dropped his latest vlog above yesterday and captioned it:
"XXL OUTER REEF PADDLE SESSION THE CARNAGE AND GLORY OF THE NOVEMBER 24TH 2023 SWELL!"
The video's almost 20 minutes of absolutely gorgeous and terrifying big waves being ridden by big wave heavies like Florence, Koa Rothman, Mike Stewart, Eli Olson, and Mark Healey.
The boys originally planned to surf Jaws over on Maui, but changed their minds as the swell got unexpectedly huge.
Florence, a paddle purest, didn't want to show up at Jaws to find waves so monstrous that he'd end up towing into them.
At the top of the video above, Florence monologues:
"We are back in Hawaii. The trippiest swell seemed like it was coming in a certain size on all forecasts. We have these buoys that sit off the island that can give wind and swell readings. The first buoy starts to hit and it's way bigger, double the size of what the swell was predicted to be.
"And it gets bigger and bigger, and so, totally pretty much under the radar type of swell. Under forecasted as far as size. We were gonna go to Jaws because it was looking like it was gonna be great for an epic paddle day at Jaws, and then the buoys hit and we were like, that's just gonna be a big mega tow day at Jaws.
"I like to paddle and push the limits of paddling. And so, I don't mind towing but only really if there's nothing to paddle."
Well said, Nathan.
Press play above for some epic big wave surfing.
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