SWELL STALKING
More tracking continued and, by the 4th, the gauntlet from Newfoundland and Greenland was on a direct NNE heading with a very healthy swathe aimed at my absolute favorite destination anywhere – Cabo Verde, and the windy island of Sal. The outlook was off the hook in several aspects. The first being a very coveted 19-second period swell band. With the swell hitting, the wind actually had been modeled to scale back to near windless levels initially, before swinging back to NE midway through the swell. That meant an absolute certainty for an extended run of perfect surf.
Taking it all in, I contacted some likely candidates to join in this mission. Photographer Si Crowther had been very interested to come join up and shoot these epic waves ,and he seemed like 100% in right off the bat. Kevin Pritchard, keen on chipping away at some more point-break riding after having joined a mission last year was also telling me simply “just let me know – I’m ready to go”. Kevin, who had his kit stashed in Germany, was already halfway there, as he followed his girlfriend Resi on the US Ski Team and awaited my word to march to Sal. Having the ultimate advantage myself of a part time Winter station in Helsinki – and a super awesome and understanding wife – I checked tickets. I’d already collected a solid amount of surfboards with a custom Simmer Flywave 85 just waiting for me there as well. After yet more intensive swell tracking, the mission was officially on. The storm of Hercules was impacting Europe with some of the scariest images ever seen of the ocean’s fury, as well sending perfect swell bands away from the eye of the storm. So instead of running to the eye of the storm, our idea was to run away from it. Perfect call!
