A competition created by the American magazine Surfing brought to life one of the most talked about phenomena in world surfing in recent years. Many categorically say that it is the best wave in the world, with no room for second opinions.

In 2007, a software developer from Laguna Niguel, California named Brian Gable got the opportunity of a lifetime when he won the Google Earth Challenge 2, a competition that required him to use Google Earth to search the corners of the earth for lines that might hint at a possible dream wave.

But Gable also relied on contacts with locals who had already surfed the wave. Several journalists and magazine editors in South Africa and Australia also reported receiving repeated invitations to ride the wave.

According to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, the first edition of this tournament was a failure, the winner and his companions were unable to reach the wave in Western Sahara and Gable had finished second with his entry. For the next edition, the Californian won: “There is only one thing to do... win the whole fucking thing!”, the engineer told the magazine in 2008.

And he did. His travelling crew included stars Cory Lopez, Peter Mendia, Mitch Coleborn and Hank Gaskell, along with photographer DJ Strunz, who spent two and a half weeks in Walvis Bay, waiting for this legendary 2km mutant to wake up and show its full potential.

On the first day of the trip, upon reaching the point, “immediately, without even seeing the true potential, we all believed that this was truly an incredible site,” Gable said. That was demonstrated by Cory Lopez, the first professional surfer to ride this wave and have the material to prove it.

This left was originally called Cory's Left after he was the first surfer to ride it with the equipment to demonstrate it.

Surfing also reported at the time that Gable could now "rest in peace, having found one of the best and longest sand bottom lefts in the world," all from the comfort of his home.

During the first week of the trip they only had hints of the wave's potential, they needed a much bigger swell. By the second week Lopez and Coleborn had to leave to return to their contractual obligations and had already changed their return flights several times, with the last hope looming far away on the horizon.

Four more days of waiting lay ahead for this swell to arrive, just the day before his imminent return home. “Judgment day for the Google Earth Challenge 2,” as Gable called it, had finally arrived and doubts along the way to the point plagued him; “Was the swell big enough? Did it arrive on time? Was it headed in the right direction? Is the spot as good as we hoped?”

The first sight of the wave that famous Monday answered all of their questions: “As we reached the point our jaws dropped,” Gable told Surfing. “My pupils dilated and my head rotated mechanically as if I were on a tripod, looking at the 180 degrees of liquid luster. Waves above my head broke like perfect sculptures from the start of the point for hundreds of feet down the beach. We won the jackpot.”

The rest is history, since all the secrecy surrounding its location came to an end especially this year, with literally hundreds of surfers, maybe thousands in total rotation, descending on the spot with filmmakers, photographers and friends.

The wave lives up to its hype; it's hard to imagine a wave that lasts two minutes and gives you eight heavy barrels, one after the other, and that's common on a good day at Skeleton Bay.