Ride (and Wipeout) of the Year

Shane Dorian just won a Ride of the Year award from Billabong, a surfing prize which involved some well-deserved monetary compensation. But you get a false impression from the BBC report. Over direct video evidence to the contrary, the announcer says Dorian “manhandled” the wave and, “despite coming dangerously close to a wipeout … held on to scoop the award.”

Watch Dorian’s wave, either in the clip above (third segment) or on the BBC page. You’ll notice he managed a fast ride against most human odds through Teahupoo’s thick, notorious tube before getting hurled against the wave’s wall (instead of through it!) by the nasty spitting spray and then sent careening pinwheeling ass-over-tit into the air before the same wave finally decided to own him on a coral reef.

It was absolutely the ride of the year. But Dorian, I’m afraid, wiped out.

     posted 16 April 2008 by Michael Scott Moore

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