The early aughts were a memorable time in surfing. In 2002, the legends of today were still on the way to becoming legends. Slater won the Eddie that year. Andy Irons won the first of three consecutive world titles. Occy was a few years past his triumphant return to the tour with a 1999 world title under his belt. Mick Fanning took the Rookie of the Year award, signaling his intentions to become one of the best surfers to ever compete. And on October 10th, 2002, Slater, AI, Fanning, and Occy were all in northern Spain together.
The crew from what would become Powerlines Productions was there, too, with high hopes the stars would align and they’d be lucky enough to find a window of great surf at Mundaka. They were greeted, however, but pancake flat conditions. They surfed a few other spots in the area, but scoring firing Mundaka was what they really wanted. At the tail end of their trip, those stars lined up. And so did Slater, AI, Fanning, and Occy.
“Back in the MINI DV camera days,” wrote Powerlines Productions on YouTube, “we went to Mundaka to sit on it for three weeks and hopefully score it. Instead, we watched the world’s best surfers charge it.”
The video you see above is from that day. Grainy. Distant. But the world’s best surfers were out there, jerseys on for the 2002 Mundaka event.