There is a certain kind of line on the horizon that makes you sit up a little straighter. It is darker than a normal wave, longer, and it moves with a patience that tells you it has come a very long way. That line is the South Pacific saying hello. And right now, well into June, it is still saying it loud.
This has been a special stretch. Storms spun up deep in the South Pacific late in May, far down toward the bottom of the world, and they have been sending swell north ever since. That energy has marched all the way across the open ocean to light up Hawaii, Tahiti, and the west coast of the Americas. Around the 8th and 9th of June a powerful long-period south swell arrived, and the best exposed spots saw double and even triple overhead surf. The forecasters keep using the same word: firing.
What I love about this, and what I never get tired of, is the journey behind it. A swell like this is not made where it breaks. It is born in a storm thousands of miles away, near Antarctica, in water most of us will never see. The wind pushes on the surface for hours and the energy organizes itself into long, smooth lines. Then those lines leave the storm behind and travel for days across the open Pacific, losing the chaos and keeping the power, until they finally stand up and break on a reef or a beach on the other side of the planet.
When you understand that, you start to look at a wave differently. You are not just looking at water. You are looking at the end of a very long trip. That is the feeling I am always chasing with my camera. Not only the size or the beauty of the wave, but the sense that you are watching something that came from far away and will be gone in a second.
Teahupo'o in Tahiti has felt it. Hawaii has felt it. And it is not slowing down. The next big window is right around the corner in Brazil, a place close to my heart. The world's best surfers head to Saquarema for the VIVO Rio Pro, running from June 19 to 27 at the heavy beach break of Itauna, with a big opening party on the sand the night before. If the South Pacific keeps doing what it has been doing, that beach is going to put on a show.
Stretches like this are a good reminder for anyone who works with the ocean, or just loves it. The sea runs on its own schedule. It does not care if it is a workday or if the light is good or if you feel like getting up before sunrise. The swell shows up when it shows up. Your only job is to pay attention, to know the signs, and to be there with your camera ready when those long dark lines start stacking on the horizon.
So if you have been seeing bigger surf than usual lately, or photos of perfect waves rolling through from all over the world, now you know why. The bottom of the planet is awake, and it has been generous. I will be watching the horizon, like always, hoping the next great line has my name on it.
Photos by Pedro Bala. Prints of “Tides and Lines” and “Hidden Right” are available at Bala Art Studio.