As far as wipeout shots go, they don’t get much better than this.
When this hit the Tracks inbox, we couldn’t quite believe our eyes, it’s such a heavy wipeout captured at the gnarliest angle. The photo was taken by Ryan Chachi Craig of Ned Hart at Off The Wall on the North Shore earlier this winter. We decided to hit up the Western Australian surfer to get the story behind the shot.
“Everyone wants to see good tubes, but everyone also loves seeing a good flogging. The picture is hilarious for everyone, but me haha. I’m actually friends with the photographer and he sent me the shot after the session. I didn’t realise he was directly underneath me when I was falling, I thought he had punched through the back of the wave already. When I saw the shot I was absolutely psyching, it’s a crazy angle.
“That session at Off The Wall was only me, Torrey Meister, Maddix Alotis and Albee Layer out. I remember sitting there and this bomb came through, I was a bit out of position but I thought I could try knife the drop and slide right under the lip. However, I was definitely under gunned out there on a 6”2. I remember pin dropping and it felt like I was in the air for so long. I didn’t get a beating on that one as I popped straight out the back, but the problem was that it didn’t push me in at all and so I came up straight in the impact zone. The second wave of the set absolutely rinsed me, that was probably the heaviest beating I had during my time there.
“I surfed Off The Wall a lot this season. With the crowd at Pipe, there’s less chance of getting a crazy one and more of a chance at OTW. I had a lot of floggings this year, but that one was by far my worst. I must have had five or six sessions at Off The Wall where I’m crawling up the beach at the end feeling waterlogged.”
Ned’s been coming to Hawaii for a number of years, but he believes this Winter blew the others out of the water.
“This season dominated in comparison to my others. I feel like I found my feet a lot more this year, I gave myself a lot more opportunities to get on crazy waves. While I may not have always got them, or made them, I was just happy to be putting myself in the spot.”
It also helps that Ned is currently sponsored by Florence Marine X, meaning that he has John John, Nathan and Ivan he can lean into for advice when he’s over on the North Shore.
“It’s been sick to hang with John, Nate and Ivan at their stomping grounds. We had a couple sick sessions at log cabins. Getting to see them in their natural habitat and how they operate is such a privilege, you couldn’t ask for better people to be around if you want to learn the ropes in Hawaii and push yourself.”
Keep your eyes peeled for this shot which features in our next issue as part of a photo spread from one of the most memorable Hawaiian winters.
