Waves in Caves: Novelty Session in San Diego (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Jan 3, 2025 5:50 PM ET

In the world of novelty waves, there’s a handful of usual suspects – standing waves, river waves, boat wakes, manmade waves, glacier waves, and more. But waves breaking through caves, although they do pop up occasionally, are seldom the star subject of the novelty wave persuasion.

Nevertheless, two novelty wave enthusiasts, Jacob “Zeke” Szekely and Ben Gravy, recently scored some waves breaking beneath caves during the historic holiday swell that slammed California, down in the San Diego hamlet of La Jolla. Soft-tops, sea lions, caves…ultimate novelty.

“We’re gonna make history today,” Gravy says.

“We’re not only gonnna surf with the seals,” adds Zeke. “We’re gonna surf Emerald Cave, dude. It’s never been done before.”

Well, not exactly.

Turns out, it has been done before. Local La Jolla legend and underground charger, Skip McCullough – who happened to snag the wave of the year (century?) in town during the recent run of swell – has surfed this novelty wave for years. But he retired after a sketchy near-drowning.

Nevertheless, the boys score it.

“I’ve checked this wave, like, 45,000 times,” Zeke says after the session. “I never even thought I’d surf it. It’s kinda like one of those spots, like, ‘yeah…we’ll show it to Ben Gravy. Maybe he’ll paddle out.’ Little did I know we’d actually be getting three-footers, like, taking off in the cave, riding for a couple seconds, then turning, and boardsliding rocks. It was pretty nuts.”

Novelty at its finest.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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