Surfer Records Rare Phenomenon as He Rides Bioluminescent Waves Beneath a Blood-Red Storm
Nature keeps a trove of jewels, and every so often, it selects one to wear, turning the world into a radiant display of light. Sometimes, it’s the sky, adorning itself in dazzling light and staging spectacles of auroras, light pillars, lighting streaks, and shooting stars. On other days, it's the ocean. Whether sky or the ocean, every show is as mesmerizing as the other.
In one such instance, when conditions are just right, balmy breeze and moonless nights, tiny creatures living inside the ocean engage in a procession of chemical reactions that cause both the ocean and its residents to glisten in an unreal blue; the spectacle becomes even more magical when a person dips their hand into it. On the last night of 2025, when Santi Medeiro (@santimedeiro) entered the ocean with his surfboard, both the sky and the ocean had planned a radiant display that would remain etched in his memory forever.
Medeiro, an Uruguayan resident from Punta del Este, was riding the waves in collaboration with @laislasurfshop. His friend Bruno Rosso recorded his surf from a distance. In an interview with the surf shop, the surfer shared that, at that time, tremendous hailstorms were pouring from the sky. The "whole sea was shining," he described. The fish, too, he said, were shining, and these shiny fish were trying to get closer to him. "I am still speechless on what this experience was," he exclaimed in the caption of the video. Lasting from 11 pm till 1 am, this night, he recalled, "had to be the most magical surf" of his life. "The storm behind intensified everything," he added.
In what seems like the best of both worlds, the video shows Medeiro's silhouette riding electric blue waves on a surfboard whose silhouette resembles a notorious black almond in the dark of the night. He begins by riding the lip of a churning wave, then snapping into a barreling forward streak, followed by a series of stalling movements. As he pushes himself through the water, the glowing foamy waves resemble a cloud made of blue fire rapidly spreading in a trail before him. Medeiro acts like a ringmaster spinning this circle of fire, guiding the rhythms, the moves, and the rolls of the waves as they pursue him.
A few moments into the video, the Spanish surfer uses the wave as his ramp and launches himself upwards, jumping in the air and quickly landing back. He repeats this aerial maneuver a couple of times, ultimately wrapping up the session with a 360-degree spinaroo. All the while, the sky appears to be blinking with an orangish-blood red light merging into the electric blue of the water, creating a luminous gradient of pulsing, dancing colors.
The experience, Medeiro confessed, was so unreal, so transcending, that he didn't even feel the pain when the ammonia in the bioluminescent material stung his flesh with poison. With sky flashing red-orange halos and waves dancing in blue glitter, the ride evoked an emotion so intense in Medeiro’s heart that right after finishing the ride, he burst into tears. Even a hearty dinner and a couple of beers at Capi bar couldn't stop the emotion from welling up inside him. While speaking with the surf shop, he shared that he was crying. "That night, my eyes were sore," he said. "I could almost not open them." It was the night, he proclaimed, that he would like to return to, again and again. Who wouldn't?
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