One of the biggest waves photographed during the swell: Manuel with his 8'8 going down Puerto Plata. "It was five or six days of incredible swell." All photos: Carlos "Lobo" Vasques

It's not normal to use a nine-footer in the Dominican Republic, but when things happen like Storm Riley, which occurred in late February and early March, it's best to have one or more nearby because otherwise you're either going to be stuck out of the water or you're going to watch them pass by.

The video is now available, please click here.

Chilean-Dominican Manuel Selman was prepared for this historic swell, he followed it closely, left aside all his tasks in Australia and went to drop bombs in the country that saw him grow up.

Locals are not afraid to reveal the spot  who surfed, Puerto Plata, or Pop, because it is one of those waves that take care of itself and that few surfers have the appetite to go surf them.

About seven surfers, Selman along with Brandon Sanford, Leon Gough, former CT Ben Bourgeois, Christian Hasslet and a few others, enjoyed one of the best swells of the decade in the Dominican Republic.

Here follows Manuel Selman's story and some photos.

The swell
The swell was caused by a giant winter storm called Riley, which occurred off the east coast of the United States, and was to blame.

The storm was perfect because it formed at a long distance, it was a groundswell and not a wind swell or a nearby hurricane, and it came from the perfect direction, from the north, perfect for the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.

I was looking at the swell from Australia, I was at the QS in Manly, and I saw the winds were quite strange, from the west, which is not common. Normally we have an easterly wind, and the winds looked bad, but there were still many days left and they could change. I decided to come. At first it was bad but then it became manageable. I had my sights set on that wave in Puerto Plata, I knew I was going to be onto something.

Sessions
It was five or six days of incredible swell. The first one wasn't good, the waves we normally surf were closing from side to side on the beach and Puerto Plata was breaking but super disorganized. I was still flying that day and I didn't miss anything.

The next three days were amazing. The wind shifted to the east, as usual, which I didn't expect, and stayed glassy until almost 12 to 1 every day. That was an amazing factor because normally the wind picks up earlier and damages the waves.

It was six days of amazing waves. There was even a new wave created in Sosua, in a place where the depth was four meters and nothing was breaking, the swell brought sand and created a wave that was like a mini Snappers that was very fun to surf.

The few brave ones
The Dominican Republic is not known in the world for big waves, but I always saw the potential. No one has ever had big boards. No one has boards bigger than seven or eight feet because you can't imagine you're going to surf waves like that. Normally everything is huge.

Or, if you find a place to surf, the police won't let you because they think you're going to die. But there's a big rider here called Andrés Flores, he lives in California and he surfs Mavericks and for several years he brought 8, 9 and 10 foot boards. That opened the eyes of the people here.

There were also a couple of crazy people who went there with 7 feet, 7'6, which is a dwarf board for those conditions.

We were a small group with good boards, about seven or eight surfers who surfed during those days. The set up is perfect, you get in where the waves don't break, with a good channel. And the waves were incredible.

Locals in Puerto Plata call it Pipeline, but it's not the same thing. We call it Puerto Plata or POP, which is the code for the city's airport.

One of my best friends, who is the one who sands the Santa Cruz Stretch boards, also saw the swell and decided to come for four days and brought an 8'8 and a 9'6.  and ended up using the latter. Brandon had an 8 footer, Ben Bourgeois also had an 8, Christian Hasslet borrowed a board from Brandon, a 7'6 and several others had smaller boards for the wave at hand, 7'4 and 7.

Memorable waves
Brandon Sanford did a late bomb, missed the jump and suffered two fractures in his arm, the rail of the board hit him. But he did do a late bomb, he has a photo of an amazing drop (see it in this article).

I caught two really good ones, one was a late drop with the wave spitting out, I couldn't see anything while I was going down in the air, it was incredible. And another was one that I went down in the air and I saw the tip just a few centimeters away from sticking in and I prayed that that wouldn't happen again (laughs). The wave is incredible, I went in with the impact vest on and that gave me confidence, I was confident that I could go down.

Leon Gough also caught an incredible wave that he surfed like no one else, with a perfect line.

Comparing
It wasn't a perfect swell, but it was definitely one of the biggest in the last 10 years. I've seen Puerto del Plata once again, almost closed, and at that time nobody had a board. This was one of the sessions that will remain in our memories for a long time.

I hope more come.

The last time I surfed this big it was smaller but more perfect, it had a bit of a westerly edge that made it close. It was definitely one of the best swells in 10 years. Plus when it dropped, Playa Encuentro was fun for weeks.