Watch: Mick returns to 'the Snake'
Earlier in the 2018 season, as reigning World Champion Tyler Wright campaigned for her third consecutive title, Mick Fanning hatched a plan.
To help her train for the Surf Ranch Pro, the first-ever World Tour event in a wave pool, he was going to take Tyler to his secret wave - the Snake.
Long, flawless barrels breaking right on the sand, eerily similar to the artificial perfection of the wave pool. It was the perfect training ground.
Unfortunately, Tyler has withdrawn from the Surf Ranch Pro due to an ongoing illness. However, she still scored with Mick.
Comments
Smaller, and trickier to make at that size, it seems, but still very tantalising.
I'm sticking to my guns re the location. Anybody got some new ideas?
Since we first emailed I got some intel that confirms your location. It's right.
Good to hear that people are sitting on it - for now!
I just went trawling through old swellnet posts to see if you’ve named the location. I don’t think you have?
Nup. IB and I communicating on the dark web.
Not as good as his first visit.
Pretty amazing that this has stayed under wraps in this day and age, off course everyone claims to know it's location, but if it was all the locations people claim, where are all the surfers?....i would have expected there to be crew on it whenever it breaks now, if it really is the locations people suggest.
It actually breaks like the latest video more often than you think. The only people who surf it are expats that live in the area, as well as a couple of pros other than Mick who have flown in when the swell forecast is big. Having said that, its still quite removed from the main city and not in a country you would visit just for a surf trip.
Will be plenty more videos coming out of it this year.
Tyler - 8 wk flu seems odd. Maybe more to story
Her cats got rabies?
Biggest mystery is why bodyboarders didn't find it first! Some might disagree but if that's the same place as that Naxto Gonzales clip,I reckon a pro lidder could get,like,a 100 second barrel out there. !
much more enjoyable on mute
Natxo and friends:
Definitely a different spot. No idea where, so far.
If she really wanted to train for the surf ranch, I would have thought rip curl would have stumped up the 50k for her to have a day in the pool. Long way to travel for a real wave that isn’t really anything like the fake one
If Tyler knows then Mikeys going to know.
So now all you need to do is give him a couple pingers when you see him out on the town then wait till the words start flowing
Simple!
!Haha Goofy. & true,IB this new clip looks about10 times heavier than Mick's wave. Freight trains of death!
Surfers wear boardshorts Tyler, boardshorts
Well well. Over on BG, Derek just couldn't keep it in his pants.
Unbelievable :(
What a douche.
Man that sucks, what do they gain by it?...more clicks$$$
So disrespectful and wrong on so many levels.
Smells very fishy. Red herrings all over the place!
BG also ran the story showing ripcurl actually had the coordinates on micks GPS watch upload available for all to see the entire time...
course it is.
He didn’t actually name where it is though did he?
all he said was Africa? but maybe edited now?
Strewth,is nothing Sacred? Wow. You can see it...and its a beautiful thang. But one of many along that unbelievably long and fertile coast
To quote caml , waste of credit that one.
If your reading this and havent watched it, dont bother.
If it’s the only wave in the area would you bother? South Africa, Morroco, Mozambique or heaps of other places in Africa would be a way better mission.
Another vid released of similar looking wave, full of clues in this one.
Going to pretty well known soon enough.
Similar, but not the same wave.
Same as the one Creed surfs in the globe film?
That landmark takes all of 10 seconds to confirm where it is.
No attempt to hide the location at all.
Yeah, pretty outrageous. At least they didn't claim to be the first to surf the wave though
Didn’t discover it.
Did fuck it.
Yup! And they did a good job talking it up. The points long but didn't see many super long waves. Certainly not the best right in the world.
Based on my experience in the region, and the fickleness of it, better off going somewhere else.
It's amazing the waves out there really, it's like the 60's was the era of discovery of the breaks in western countries like USA, Hawaii and Aust and assume Mexico and Europe?
Then 70-80 early 90s Indonesia and Asia and Pacific all the other tropical locations including South America
And now the 00 are about the African and middle east possibly the final frontier
Mick's wave is no secret anymore. Late last year a Danish surf team,
with a photog in tow, made a strike mission to the wave. Scored, took
the photos, did the trip write-up and posted it all on their website.
They didn't even try to conceal its location posting both the town and
country where it is situated. The circus will be rolling into town.
They were there two years before Mick.
Righto - well go ahead and post said article. I googled "danish surf africa" and "hartkopp africa surf" to no avail...
Me too offshoreozzie hahah
Nuts!
Been only following this one loosely but when I did my own google map dreaming saw a couple of fishing camps targeted towards cashed up south africans, wouldn't take much to fine tune the service offering. But have my doubts on consistency.
It's on surf forecasting websites, not that secret really.
At least three different spots in this thread, yet somehow people think that every long righthander is 'Mick's Wave'.
I think the point is: there are great waves out there; find them, surf them and keep your mouth shut.
The lesson being that you’ve got to enjoy secret spots and low key destinations while you can.
The self promoters , surf media and industry are casting their net ever wider in search of the next location to reveal.
Get out there and revel in the mystique of the untrammelled path that remains . Adventure is as rewarding as the waves you might find.
check out the new vid on beachgrit of another sandy right today! Is it of the same or another? Beach and surroundings look pretty distinctive, shouldn't be too hard to work out where with google earth etc.
Anyone on here been to any of these African desert areas? Or good old Namibia?
Have you found it yet Ron ? I hope you do.
Where did you go for your last surf trip ?
Haven't looked. No need to go down that rabbit hole at this point. No surf trips for me this year. Last one was a quick Bali run. Nothing too exotic. I spend all my saved up time and money on Snow trips these days as i surf every day at home.
Haha if you think any land marks are left in these clips accidentally then good luck on your search, as its going to be a long one. However, things like boards, wetsuits and even hairstyles matched with a quick scan of social media accounts can help establish timeline... now we can start looking at swells ;)
I’ve recently noticed that Hugh Grant has had the same hairstyle for over two decades.
He’s obviously not going to be much help !
I still enjoy his typecast role as the tongue tied English romantic despite his eternal foppish hair cut. So weird .
haha and now you know why he always runs it the same... so you can't pin him to a timeline. welcome to 2030.
These guys left some clues... 1:53 he is standing in airport transporter... barely able to make it out but CV Handling is in graphics on the side... seems too obscure of a red herring so... google that and you're on Cape Verde islands folks. I'd suggest googling there... now to match up the geographic cues in the video...
Urgh. Face palm.... Why name it?
Because... this is the internet. And stupidity from these humble brag douchebags deserves it. Fuck Nick VonZipper, these clowns and Mick Fanning while we at it.
Either show up no cameras, or release nothing... or don't. Once it's in the public domain you can post your futile comments but it's leaking everywhere and the ships going down. I'd hit it soon carpetman if you just want a few mates on it... those that have the means, desire and understanding to piece together the right variables are on route for the next one. This is Skeleton redux but we've seen that hasnt resulted in armageddon just yet.
Need some further proof? Every other platform, comment and forum (with exponential reach over this esteemed site) is leaking like a sieve by the patriotic, naive and "stupid":
https://snag.gy/LekQF3.jpg
Facepalm.
I made a similar comment to Carpertman on another site a while ago.
And someone commented that those naming the locations in comments etc aren't to blame it's those like Mick and these guys who did the video who should get the full blame.
While i don't agree with naming locations online in comments etc, i do think its a fair point the real blame should be put on guys like Mick and Rip curl and others documenting these spots.
It's interesting that we seem to often give them a free pass and forget that they are the ones exposing these places and bring attention to these areas..
Mick brought light to one wave and it may or may not still be relatively unknown, but just by making that snake vid he and ripcurl have blown open other similar rights.
It's like if you have secret spots in your area, you don't even mention you do as others will then go looking and find them, better just to say there is no secrets left and no one will think otherwise and not bother looking.
OSO, So you're a douche because everyone else is?
I'm just pushing the point with this one. Someone has to. It's been skirted around on here.
I don't fundamentally like doing it, but I'm interested to hear the perspective of others while cowering for the expected hate and abuse. As ID mentioned, where does responsibility lie? It's human nature to what to try find out where and seek the dream like these.
Every single person who releases "secret spot" footage does so with something to gain. It takes real fortitude not to and today's commercial economy applies even more pressure - another crossroad to surfing's purist ethos. Perhaps more backlash, press and "instacrowding" will actually have the reverse effect and force pressure the other direction - actually checking the conscious and claims of those who find the multitude of spots that remain...
I'm also a realist and can see my choice here in this dot on the web will have very limited impact in the broader scope of this break and it's outing. Heck in the screenshot I posted the Cape Verde local is proud and happy to shout to the heavens - why have your nose out of joint if you have no real claim to it?
Looks like it might go off again this Fri/Saturday too! I wonder who's on it...
Why do you need to justify your ego stroking? You're not cleaver cause you figured it out. You're special because, unlike you suggest, it's only a small number of people who reduce themselves to outting a spot.
Congratulations you're part of that small crew!
Ouch. My enlarged ego and small intelligence have been challenged by a stranger on the internet. We could go back and forth all year. I wont and this will be my last word regarding. I'm sure you'll have yours so feel free to define small so I know how special I am.
Can't see a resemblance at all, must be elsewhere.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Lakes_at_Praia_de_C…
After the first Snake vid was released we - like everyone else, I assume - pored over Google Earth looking for where it might be.
Over the coming weeks I reckon we found a dozen or more potential candidates - and they were just the ones that fitted the description of what we were looking for (warm water, right hand, long sandy beach with a particular profile).
But not all locations had breaking waves (or the right sand distribution) at the time the satellite passed overhead, so we could never be very sure. So there was also a degree of 'I wonder what this spot would be like...'.
There would have to be another couple of dozen more locations around the globe at least, displaying other characteristics (cold water, left handers, different geology etc).
So - rightly or wrongly - from a scientific point of view, it's interesting to see some of these spots materialise as it confirms some of the suspicions and/or assumptions about what we thought may lie over the next hill.
I wonder how Peter Troy would fare in the present day?
Blown. Move on. Nothing to see here. Obviously not enough blurring in post-production. CV branding was a giveaway as was Naxto and his 'island dream'. Bloody Portuguese 'explorers'
It's a pity. As an expat who's worked in Africa, there are so many spots over there that the surf/kite/crossover community has managed to keep close to its chest for decades, especially during 'season' without a need to out it. Takes two clowns to uncover it for click bait.
Will be interesting how many swarm it next season with all the variables. Might just have to tell the wifey that our honeymoon could fall on any number of dates. And then leave the family in the resort pool.
Cue X-Files music...snake, boa...
What happened to your post re the campfire convo , Stu ?
Longer piece coming.
There's a corollary to that story that I can't mention on an online forum. Maybe next time you're down this way.
Roger that.
does anyone know where I could find some historical wave data? say maybe 7/8 months back?
Its nuts what 15 minutes of snooping on the net can do, Nic Von Rup has given an interview on another website and he says some friendly locals took him there. They'd be absolutely spewing that they told him now i would imagine.
Depends on your interpretation of the term “ local “ I guess.
It might have been a couple of Germans moved there 12 months ago that informed him.
I’ve met Swedish locals in Sumbawa and Brazilian locals in Margaret river. At least they told me they were locals...