As one of the world’s most productive wave hunters, Josh Mulcoy is used to keeping his discoveries to himself, whether it’s a remote beach or in his backyard of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. But nowadays, Mulcoy, a professional surfer and photographer, takes more care than ever about what information he shares — and what he doesn’t.
"If I know of something and I want to keep it a secret, I pretty much don’t tell anyone, except one or two friends — and we have a pact where we don’t tell anyone else,” he said.
Publicizing certain surf spots, and especially ones off the beaten path, is similar to violating the first rule of Fight Club. You just do not talk about certain surf spots. For years, surfers, surf magazines and surf photographers mostly lived by that unwritten law to keep surfing’s secret spots secret. Do not take photographs, and if you must, do not identify it by anything more specific than the region, the country or even the continent.