Summer is finally here, it’s warm and sunny outside and you are really starting to grow desperate to get back into the waves. No worries though, be it Tenerife or Cantabria as a destination, we got you covered!

But how about changing things up a bit? How about making the journey the destination, traveling from place to place, from beach to beach, from spot to spot, never sure what the next may bring. Sounds like an adventure? Ask Kepa Acero about it!

Originally from the Basque Country Kepa grew up surfing the legendary waves in and around Mundaka. He soon followed his older brother Eneko’s footsteps into competitive surfing, becoming European Junior Champion and eventually entering the WQS. After about three years though, he realized that competing wasn’t really what he was looking for and with his sponsor Reef started a career as a freesurfer. Although this new kind of lifestyle was an incredible experience, it still couldn’t satisfy his thirst and curiousity for adventure. “Each trip had always four or five surfers, plus a photographer and a filmer,” he explains, “so it left little scope for spontaneity or real interaction with the local people. Sure, I was traveling around and surfing great waves, but I felt I was just skimming the surface of what real travel could be.”

So Kepa decided to turn away from the regular models defining the life of a pro surfer and to explore and surf some of the most

Kepa in Indo | Photo: Kepa Acero

remote waves in the world, making contact to locals and experiencing different cultures along the way. With no sponsors and completely on his own his first trip led him to Namibia, first staying with local surfers he’d met on Facebook and then continued on to explore the coast alone.

Kepa soon started to document his travels as well. Being a self taught cinematographer the videos he uploads to his YouTube channel have a unique style and authenticity, that began to capture people’s interest. “I had days and days in the desert living in a car, so I started to edited some clips put them up on Facebook and Twitter and that’s how it started. People were interested and it was good to have a connection with people, seeing how isolated I was. Plus telling a simple story as it happens was a really powerful idea,” he explains.

After that first trip to Africa his hunger for adventure was stronger than ever. Due to the success of his videos Kepa could find some likeminded sponsors like Patagonia and Reef and with their help started embarking on journeys to some of the most remote waves on earth. His travels so far have led him to places like Alaska, Peru, Chile, Patagonia, India, Indonesia, Angola, and Antarctica, often equipped with hopes of finding an undiscovered wave. These hopes, usually fed by previous research on Google Maps and Facebook, haven’t always been met with perfect and neverending tube rides, but the countless stories lived and the people met along the way to get there sure made up for the ones unfullfilled.

If you want to find out more about Kepa’s lifestyle, take a look at his Homepage, YouTube channel and Instagram. We at Atlantik Surf are always inspired by his incredible lifestyle choice and the stories he is telling.