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Testing 1, 2, 3
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Our ambassadors are wear-and-tear specialists. Their job is to test our gear in the gnarliest conditions and give us the feedback we need to build it better. Here’s a dispatch from the cold, burly coast of British Columbia featuring Paige Alms, Moona Whyte and Kyle Thiermann, with photos by Christa Funk.
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After meeting up in BC, the crew rented a van and packed it with cold-weather gear:
R4® and R5® wetsuits,
Hydropeak Stretch Thermals,
Granite Crest Rain Pants,
Capilene® Midweight Zip-Necks, the
Big Water Foul Weather Kit and a quiver of
FCD surfboards. Moona is pumped after pulling onto the ferry.
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At the dock, the crew met their captain, RJ, and loaded into a 22-foot, camouflage-wrapped vessel called
The Nomad, their only form of transportation for the week.
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Home base was a floating lodge with air-sealed barrels and blocks of Styrofoam that kept it afloat. Just beyond the shielded inlet are dozens of rarely surfed waves only accessible by boat.
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Moona and Paige both live in Hawaiʻi. Until this trip, Moona had never surfed in water colder than Australia’s tepid Gold Coast. Kyle, who grew up in Santa Cruz, shared a magic trick as they suited up: When climbing into the legs of your wetsuit, keep your socks on for a smoother entry.
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“What’s your favorite form of big-wave training?” Kyle asked Paige, a two-time Big Wave World Champion. “Downwind foiling,” she replied, explaining how the trade winds blow hardest in Maui’s summer months. “You can approach speeds only possible on big waves,” she said. “You get comfortable going fast.”
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Moona has four kitesurfing world titles. She is gifted in many disciplines of surf craft. For her, almost all conditions are worth riding. At one point, after bouncing off the reef in her
R4® hooded wetsuit, Moona surfaced and said, “Wow, thick wetsuits aren’t so bad when they break your fall.”
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The prized spot of the trip was a well-known slab that Kyle described: “[It] resembles an Indonesian reef pass, with a lagoon on the inside and a shallow ledge that inspires a brief but flawless right-hand barrel, maxing out at six feet. I jumped off the furthest rock and paddled out to the empty break. Bull kelp thumped against the bottom of my board.”
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“What’s your scariest ocean story?” Kyle asked Paige. “Well,” she said, “one time, a guy on a Wavestorm tried to hit on me.” Terrifying, they all agreed.
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“I think the key takeaway ... really comes down to who you’re there with and the laughs,” said Paige. “That’s what this trip was, a lot of laughter.”
To see more, watch the video.
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