Epic Barbariga

Lets get one thing straight. The word “epic” got pretty warned out these days, just like claiming seems to be the next best thing in surfing all around the world. It is a circus.

It is not epic just because you are there, nor just because it turns glassy. ”Epic” hits once or maybe twice every few years, when you score conditions that usually never happen or have possibly never had happened before. Otherwise it would not be epic. It would be random, regular, classic, whatever.

On Saturday 17.12.2011 Barbariga was epic. Period.

Three years straight it did not even break. This year it worked three times, waist high and choppy. Yesterday it was close to 2m, cleaners even more. If you got caught inside, it washed you in and at least 50m down the coast like a little puppet. The power was unimaginable for waves of Adriatic. It tubed and spit out. Nobody has seen it like that before and some guys out there, were chasing it for almost ten years. This is epic… and hopefully this is a legit time to claim, haha.

Me and Katja documented for about an hour and then I decided to do some helmetcam shots. Which we will maybe never see, because the cam got ripped, ironically, on the smallest wave of the day. Shit luck, yet everybody is invited for some late December scuba diving, haha.


Last surf session before the winter

It is finally getting colder and it even started to snow in the higher mountains of the Julian Alps.

Cyclones that bring the most snow to Slovenia, arrive over France, continue their way below the Alps in Italy and bring southern winds over Adriatic Sea. Which in short means waves. Once or twice per year we get lucky and the front makes a sharp turn and the winds turn southwest. Then it is time to check Barbariga.

The forecast was looking really nice and we were hoping to ride some sizable lefts, yet the weather had its own plan, I guess. We got a waist high chop, but it was fun anyway. I also did some filming for my “no deadline” Slovenian surf documentary, because like I said, it is rare to get a chance to surf Barbariga and this is also a (big) part of what surfing on “home turf” means for Slovenian soul surfers…

Comment Last surf session before the winter

Barbariga at last!

We do not get to surf very often in Adriatic, maybe like 20 to 30 days per year, and its always Medulin. But there is a nice lefthander in Barbariga that works maybe once a year, when the winds, tides and stars align just right.

After five or more unsuccessful check-ups in past three years, we finally nailed it on Sunday! Although it was small to medium size for this spot, it is for sure the best wave near Slovenia and it was International Surfing Day, therefore the best possible time to get a ride there!