Watch Pro Surfers Try to Catch Waves on This Crazy Floating Dock
It's terrifying.
What would it be like to just walk out on top of the surf before catching the right wave? A floating dock invention might make that a possibility, and a group of surfers were tasked with testing the theory in May in Keramas, Bali.
A collaboration between the surfing publication Stab Magazine and dock manufacturer Candock, the 100 foot, half tonne floating dock was anchored in the ocean, resting in the middle of the surf break. On second thought, resting isn’t exactly the right word.
Professional surfers Noa Deane, Ozzie Wright, Balaram Stack, Imaikalani Devault, Yago Dora and Mitch Coleborn were enlisted to try out the contraption, and the results are pretty breathtaking — not to mention probably pretty dangerous.
“It would just kill you if it hit you, yeah?” Deane recounted to Stab following the experiment. “What’s it weigh? Half a tonne? When it wears a wave on the head it kicks like a snake. Like, Balaram jumped up and went six feet in the air. Then he landed on the wire, so sketchy. It whips right at the end because it’s connected to a cable which adds extra tension.”
The dock is made of plastic, non-stick cubes, linked together in any number of configurations. In this case, a long rectangle made the most sense. In theory, building one out from the shore would let surfers run straight out instead of having to paddle. For the time being, the free-standing dock provided plenty of challenges and an extra element in powerful water.
Watch the chaos for yourself below:
