Video: Heavy Slabs, Perfect Barrels Leave Uruguay Locals Smiling

Wedged between Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay isn’t tops on too many surf travel bucket lists, but as we saw in August, every dog has its day. Enter 32-year-old Sebastián Olarte, who’s spent much of his life chasing waves around the world because, well, it’s just not that consistent at home.

But that changed last month when a strong, Atlantic swell started pushing waves towards Uruguay. Olarte and his crew were on it. The headed to a stretch of coast called Rocha, which is home to a number of quality setups…the catch is there’s generally not a big enough swell to trigger them.

Getting to the beach at 4:00am, the surfers were met by an energized ocean and howling offshore winds—a rarity for this stretch of coast. After throwing their boards, wetsuits and gear together Olarte and crew headed out to a rare slab about two miles from shore. Out in the open ocean the wind grew more intense, the swell more raw. After a couple waves to test the waters, it was Olarte’s turn to pick up the tow rope. Getting whipped into a bomb, "It was the biggest wave of the day, and I was pumped to have made it," explained Olarte. "We attempted to catch a few more waves, but the wind grew stronger, so we headed to the beachbreak, which was also on fire.”

And while the slab provided a heart-in-your-throat good time, the beachbreak delivered the kind of perfection surfers like Olarte travel the world in search of. Offshore kissed, wide open, empty barrels with nobody but a few friends around to enjoy it. The crew would spend the rest of the day doing step-offs and getting themselves thoroughly surfed out.

“None of us could believe that such a wave had materialized in Uruguay - it was a moment of both delight and disbelief,” the group’s filmer, Leandro, would later say.

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