Its intent was to tell the person who’d just arrived that, however good the surf seemed to be, that they’d missed out… ‘yesterday’ was when it’d been really good.

Often this was in the imaginings of the person who’d arrived first, but the pictures of empty breaks… from Malibu to Jeffrey’s Bay, from Snapper Rocks to Dos Coxos and including Parlementia… those are evidence, and they show us that some things have irrevocably changed.

The pressures of the surfing population mean that these most famous of surf breaks are seldom without crowds. But the world is a very big place, and a little further off the beaten track there still exists unridden surf. With a bit of exploration and an adventurous spirit, the lure of finding empty waves is still a realistic dream… and the value of the individual experience remains as high.