Back in June, Puerto Escondido was absolutely hammered by massive swells. That’s not out of the norm — although that series of swells were a little bigger and a little longer than usual — but they caused something that was out of the norm: a new wave breaking over a new sandbar.
“Days after Puerto Escondido’s historic June swell, something unexpected appeared,” wrote Edwin Morales, a guy who knows Puerto about as well as it can be known. “A brand-new sandbar formed in a completely different section of the beach, creating fast, hollow, and incredibly fun waves. They weren’t the biggest waves of the season — but they were some of the cleanest and most exciting.”
Since it was one of Puerto Escondido’s best months in a long time, a lot of the world’s best big wave surfers were at Zicatela and they knew it was something they needed to experience.
“Local surfers and visiting chargers quickly realized this place was special. During the session, both Kurt Rist and Charly Quivront started calling it ‘Sand Slab’ and the name stuck,” Morales continued. “This video documents the first days of this unique setup, featuring perfect barrels, clean lines, and a look at how one giant swell completely reshaped the coastline.”
Kurt Rist, a Puerto aficionado, was happy about the development, to say the least. “It felt pretty sand-slabby,” he said from the beach. “There’s like this rip current sand-slab. It was pretty hard to stand under and in position on it. I was out there all morning paddling around in the current and finally I was in the spot on this one. It was really a lot of water sucking up. It felt like a Hail Mary drop to me, but I just pulled in and it spit, so I can’t ask for anything more.”
