HIS name is Ben Larg, and he is an addict.
The teenage Tiree native is not much of a gambler, he does not drink to excess and he is not interested in drugs. OK there has been some violence and he has just finished a stint in rehab, but his parents remain supportive. There is hope for him yet… not that he is in any rush to kick the habit.
“It’s always on my mind,” says the Hebridean, who turned 19 on Thursday. “Every day I’m checking the swell for today, tomorrow, the next day. I’m always texting someone about the surf. I just never seem to get sick of it.
“There’s no feeling to describe surfing a big wave. You’re going 50mph down the face of a 60-foot wave. It’s an insane feeling. You’ve got the biggest rush of adrenaline you’ve ever felt, you’ve got the wave chasing you down and when you make one, you’ve just got this overwhelming feel of stoke and happiness and you just want to keep going. It’s a total addiction.”
Luckily, he is in the best place for it. I join Larg at Red Bull’s European hub in Nazare, a sleepy Portuguese town turned surf mecca after pioneers discovered a geographical fluke that generates some of the world’s biggest swells. Records tumbled and crowds gathered, attracting the cameras of HBO, whose critically adored documentary series 100-Foot Wave has in turn lured even more pilgrims.
For Larg, life is measured in seven-second increments atop these waves the size of buildings. The time in between is merely waiting. Watching the weather apps, checking flights, holding his breath.
From his island beginnings, he was Scotland’s under-18 surf champion by the time he was 12 and caught global attention two years later when he became the youngest person to ride a 40-foot break at Mullaghmore off the west coast of Ireland, with footage captured in the acclaimed film about his early years, Ride The Wave.
“That video went pretty viral,” he says. “It was like, ‘Who’s this kid that’s 14 that’s surfed Mully?’ That was when Red Bull also first got in touch with us. I mind being so nervous that I didn’t tell my mum and dad for two days. I’d dreamed of being sponsored by them since I was seven years old so I couldn’t believe that they’d got in contact. It was a total dream come true.”
Big-wave surfing can be an expensive and isolating pursuit, and signing with the energy drink giants guaranteed two things – the financial backing to chase his dream and a place among a hardy clan of weather-worn warriors all pulling in the same direction and pushing each other on, including surf legend and invaluable mentor Andrew Cotton. Welcome to big school.
Just four days after the contract was agreed though, a sucker punch on the north shore of Nazare threatened to take it all away.
“My injury was a dead unfortunate story,” Larg says with a grimace. “I was actually paddling out here at Nazare on a super small day. Surfing can be kind of quite localised sometimes and basically I paddled out into the water and there were these bodyboarders who were quite aggressive and they told me to leave the water.
“I was only 17 and I said to them: ‘Hey guys, I’m just a kid – you guys catch the waves you want and I’ll catch the ones you don’t, no worries’, but they were insisting that I leave and I ended up arguing with them. One of the guys punched me and then I said, ‘OK, you guys win’ and backed off after that. I turned to walk away on the beach and he punched me in the ear for a second time when I was walking away. My ear was super sore and blood was coming out of it. Cotty and Justine [Cotton’s girlfriend] took me to see a doctor and he confirmed I’d burst my eardrum. I thought that was what it was because my ear was ringing like mad.”
What was initially diagnosed as a four or five-week recovery period gradually spiralled until Larg had been out of the water for months and was facing ear surgery that would cost tens of thousands of pounds. Understandably, the teenager feared for his career.
“I was really worried because other sponsors can be super brutal and they would just want nothing to do with it. They would drop you like a hot rock.”
Fortunately, Red Bull had faith in Larg’s potential and stood by their man. After second opinions from specialists, two surgeries and a rehab programme in Austria, he is back in the water 18 months later, albeit sporting a modified ear plug for now to help with balance.
“It was pretty tough,” Larg says of his recovery. “Even though I knew my sponsors were super cool about it I still felt a lot of pressure to perform, especially as it was my first year with a couple of them and I was quite worried what they’d think.
“I still feel that now, even getting back into it. It’s tough and I just want to perform well this winter for them and do everything the best I can.”
Although the long road back was frustrating, Larg was never tempted to seek any measure of revenge on his attacker.
“We could have went to the police or something but a couple of guys knew him, he was a local guy here and he has a family and stuff,” he says. “I really feel like as much as he was an a*****e and surfing can be like that, I still didn’t want to ruin his life. It could put your business under or something like that.
“I’ve seen him about and he has apologised since. I dunno if it’s sincere or not but he’s not a nice guy. I’ll just move on from it.”
Ever forward. After the false start to his career, Larg is determined to make up for lost time. Before his injury, he tamed a 60-foot monster and it is clear it has only made him more hungry. We chat at a burger place just up the cliff from Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo lighthouse, the town’s most famous landmark and a de facto hall of fame for big-wave surfing. The structure houses the boards of those who have helped build the scene – from current verified record holder Sebastian Steudtner (86 feet) to Nuno Santos, a Portuguese daredevil who tackled a barrel while playing a violin.
“I see all the pro surfers’ surfboards up at the lighthouse at Nazare with everyone’s little story about why their boards are there and it’s an amazing thing,” says Larg. “I don’t have a board there yet and it’s something for sure I want mine up there one day as well. I know guys who are going to the door and asking, ‘Can I put my board in there?’, but I want to earn it the right way.”
You would not bet against him. Right on cue, local jet ski driver Alemao de Maresias wanders over to say hi.
“You are in good hands,” the Portuguese exclaims. “This guy’s amazing. He’s younger, but his heart is going further!”
He may have to get used to the attention. A feature in the third season of 100-Foot Wave brings another chance to seize the spotlight. Despite his early dalliance with the silver screen, he finds watching himself “a total minter”.
As the sun sets on the Portuguese coast, thoughts are never far from home. Larg has been working on a pet project to find Scotland’s Biggest Wave that he has pitched as part of a video series with Red Bull.
“I think it’s somewhere up the north coast, in Orkney or maybe the Hebrides somewhere. It’s a bit of a myth but I’m searching for it. Maybe by the end of this year I’ll try to hit a swell.”
The Scottish Government have also asked Larg to act as an ambassador for the Lost Shore, a state-of-the-art wave pool being built outside Edinburgh slated to open next September.
“It’s gonna be huge,” he says. “It’s the newest technology and it’ll be perfect wave after perfect wave. It’s a great place to practise your surfing. It’s like a skate park – you can practise the same things over and over again.
“That’s something that you’ve never been able to do in surfing before but now with this wave-pool technology you can practise doing one manoeuvre over and over again on the same wave.
“I think for Scottish surfing as well it can be quite unappealing in that, especially on the east coast of Scotland, the water can often be quite dirty or super cold and there’s nowhere to get a shower, or a bite to eat nearby, whereas this is going to be right in Edinburgh, 10 minutes from the airport. I think it’ll be a great thing for Scotland and we’ll also have loads of tourists flying in to come and surf it.
“I’m really proud to be from Scotland – I am the first Scottish surfer to ever surf Nazare, and the first Scottish big-wave surfer, first Scottish surfer sponsored by Red Bull so it’s cool and it does feel like a bit of a stepping stone for Scottish surfing and there’s a lot of young kids getting into surfing in Scotland now.
“You don’t want to sound big headed but 100 per cent if I inspired any kids to get into surfing then I’d be absolutely stoked. I’d be stoked if any of them gave us a message and wanted to go surfing in Scotland. There’s a few pretty sound kids in Scotland now starting to surf really good.”
One of the “sound kids” lives in his house. Little sister Robin, 16, has followed in her brother’s footsteps as Scottish under-18 champion and has been threatening to take on Nazare. Will she be better than Ben?
“Well, probably! I don’t see why not,” he laughs. “It was hard for me and I had to pave a bit of a path but now I can guide her down it. If she does want to get into big-wave surfing then I’ll be here.”
And he will be here for a good while yet. Larg plans to surf until he is “at least 45”. Tiree calls him home for summer every year but from Nazare it is on to Lanzarote for the festive period, with forecasts for Japan, Hawaii and the rest of the world’s hotspots always on the radar in case the tide turns. The competition calendar is unpredictable given it all depends on weather, but he will be ready.
His name is Ben Larg, and he is an addict. But he would not have it any other way.
