South Africa's West Coast: only Houston and Specker know the feeling

Jared Houston and Sacha Specker have hidden a secret for three years. In 2012, they surfed perfect, uncrowded barrels for eight hours on South Africa's West Coast.

Sometimes you've got to be lucky. After traveling around the globe, Houston and Specker touched the homeland and looked at the charts. It looked lovely. At 7 am, the duo arrived at an undisclosed break.

"It all pointed towards the day being cracking, with a good little pulse running, coupled with a strong period and the holy of holies - the infamous "Berg Wind." A straight easterly on the West Coast happens periodically in winter, and when it coincides with a swell, it makes for "drop everything and go" circumstances," explained Jared Houston.

"Upon arrival, we were grievously disappointed with the shifty, four-foot closeouts on offer, and worse yet, the wind was coming out of the southeast, which made for generally average conditions. We decided to hit it anyway, having driven all the way up there, and right before I went out, I texted my friend Ruan saying 'don't worry, worst I've ever seen it."

Jared Houston came in six hours later and sent him another message saying, "Day of days! Get here now." As the tide moved in, the wind magically shifted to its predicted direction, the swell moved on to the bank, and heaven touched the spot.

"We were joined by a couple of other frothing boogers but other than that, we didn't see a soul the entire day. Definitely one of the best days of my life."

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