When used correctly, Google Maps is one hell of a tool for a surfer. With a basic understanding of swell and geography, Google Maps puts the world at your fingertips, literally. Just spin the globe, zoom in on a coastline, scroll up and down, and repeat. With enough patience you’re bound to uncover a potential gem. Hell, in the early 2000s, Skeleton Bay was discovered that way.
Of course, just because you find it, doesn’t mean you can surf it.
Take the video above from travel YouTuber Dan Harmon. Curious about North Korea, Harmon started poking around the coastline and uncovered a series of potential setups, finding one that even resembles Malibu.
Unfortunately, you’ll never surf it.
As Harmon explains, North Korea is very much off-limits to surf exploration. Sure, you might jump on a very controlled tour to some random beach to ride a 2-foot wave, but you certainly aren’t striking a swell and setup in search of empty pointbreak perfection, though it likely exists. While North Korea is tucked up in the Sea of Japan, there’s certainly enough fetch to whip up swell in the winter. If you can get barreled in the Great Lakes or the Mediterranean Sea, surely you can get shacked in North Korea, right?
Well, wrong. Unless your name is Kim Jong Un, that is. And while we know he loves basketball, we’re not so sure he’s tuning into the WSL.