In the series “Maps to Nowhere” by O’Neill & Surfline, Matt Rode takes a few selected surfers on a wild surf trip to lonely and unsurfed waves. And we get to travel along from home and puzzle over where the wave might be. Because that’s the most important rule: the location is never revealed!
Maps to Nowhere
Overview
Maps to Nowhere The search for the lonely wave
All surfing enthusiasts know it: THE SEARCH! The search for the perfect wave, in lonely places hidden from the world. Just you and a handful of friends in the water… But can there still be such dreamlike, undiscovered waves in this day and age? The answer is actually yes! Because with the right expert in swell and weather map reading, Matt Rode, and the necessary spontaneity, these gems can still be found.
Maps to Nowhere The Idee behind the series
Imagine your mobile phone rings, you get a flight ticket “to nowhere” – after all, it’s not called “Maps to Nowhere” for nothing – grab your seven things and suddenly you’re sitting at a beautiful surf spot with a fantastic wave breaking in front of you. And most importantly: there’s nobody in the water and you’re only sharing the wave with your friends.“Some people travel to surf, but lots of times I feel like I surf so I can travel” – Chris Malloy
Ideally, this is exactly how the “Maps to nowhere” trips work – nobody in the team knows the surf spot or has surfed there before. The masterminds behind the surf trip – Matt Rode with the swell experts from the Surfline team – use swell maps and weather forecasts to determine the location where there should theoretically be a great wave under certain swell, wind and weather conditions.
However, nobody knows what it looks like in reality. Maybe the whole trip is for nothing – or maybe the best wave of your life is hiding there! This uncertainty is what makes the short films so appealing. Just like the guesswork on the screen as to where on earth this wave might be.
Maps to Nowhere But who is Matt Rode?
Matt Rode, surfer and journalist for Surfline and Magicseaweed, has dedicated years to the search for the perfect and, above all, lonely wave. During his voluntary service in the Pacific region, locals showed him a righthander that is somewhat the mirror image of the famous Teahupo’o wave. And the best thing: nobody surfed this unknown wave! Matt surfed there for as long as he was there and the wave was running, returning again and again during his university holidays and surfing barrel after barrel. And so began his obsession with empty waves, far away from the full line-ups. With his accumulated Frequent Flyer miles, he travelled to the furthest corners of the world to catch the next swell.And if there are no waves? Then he explores the area on foot, goes climbing, removes the fins from the surfboards and goes bodyboarding – the main thing is to be outside, the main thing is exercise – there doesn’t really seem to be a bad trip…
Eventually, Matt Rode started reporting on his trips and publishing articles in surf magazines – always careful not to give away the spot in order to protect it from the onslaught of surf tourists. And slowly the idea for a new project grew, not only for him but also for those responsible at Surfline and O’Neill: the “Maps to Nowhere”!
Maps to Nowhere The series on YouTube
The second season of “Maps to Nowhere” was released in spring 2024. Each episode describes a surf trip to nowhere. Two to three pro surfers are invited on each trip, which emphasises the quality of the waves. The pros are given an approximate time window during which they should not be too far from home or the nearest airport, so that they are ready to leave when called.
Travelling by plane, boat and car can ultimately take up to several days, the surfboards don’t always come with you and nobody knows what to expect. The chance that the swell won’t arrive or that the seabed will swallow the wave, or that it won’t be surfable for whatever reason, hovers over everything and sometimes makes for disappointed faces. In the end, however, the ocean always delivers: from eternally long barrels on the beach to beautiful reef waves, from warm water waves in tropical areas to cold water surfing and camping on the beach – everything is possible on the trips.
The Maps to Nowhere films take you to unknown places and fantastic waves. And the focus of the films really is on surfing and the waves. On screen, we watch the surfers surfing from the sofa for a large part of the time. We share in their genuine joy at the wave treasures they find and suffer a little when they arrive at the end of the world and their first impression of the surf spot is sobering. There’s no unnecessary drama and it’s really fun to follow the “Maps to Nowhere” surf trip.
So if you’re still looking for entertaining films for your next surf film night, Maps of Nowhere is a real heartfelt recommendation from us!