What do you get when you put a bunch of the world’s best aerial surfers in a wave pool with a number of skatepark-like objects and encourage them to do whatever they want? Organised chaos. The Swatch Nines surf event just wrapped up at the Waco Surf Pool and possibly two of the best airs ever done were completed throughout the three days of carnage.
The idea behind the Swatch Nines is to push surfing innovation as far as possible, while having the most fun as possible. It’s not a contest, there are no heats, the organisers simply book 42 hours of surfing across three days in the pool and kit it out with a number of fascinating features including a floating deck with a skate ramp, a platform for ninja drops, and a spot for three different rails. They’ve also got a crane so that they can place the features wherever they like in the pool and the surfers are expected to make use of them. This is also set to the backdrop of a number of skaters and BMX’ers doing their thing around the edge of the pool. It’s as close to an extreme sports circus as you’ll get.
Each day the surfers are given the choice of what they’d like to do. They could practice grinds on the rails, try and jump through the ring of fire or just simply go out, surf and try land some of the maddest airs you’ve ever seen.
After the first two days, Hughie Vaughan had taken the cake for the craziest air. The clip of his stalefish grab backflip went viral on social media with many unable to comprehend the torque required to pull off such a maneuver. Every high profile surfer had something to say about the air, Italo Ferreira called it ‘insane’, Jamie O’Brien described it as ‘absolutely incredible’, Jesse Mendes, Eric Geselman and Jacko Baker called it the ‘best air ever done’. Even world famous DJ Diplo commented and asked if it was AI.
“Some of the highest quality surfing I’ve ever seen in my life… it almost looked like snowboarding, it looked fake, but he wasn’t strapped in, and he was just surfing. I was like, ‘Whoa, I think this is what this is all about,’” said Mason Ho.
The air also caught the attention of skateboarding GOAT Tony Hawk who reshared the clip of Hughie and named the trick a ‘stale fish flipper’. See below:
Tony’s input didn’t end there though. After the final day of competition, another clip surfaced of Matt Meola doing what Tony called an ‘Alley-oop stale 5’.
“I was so nervous because I didn’t want to let everyone down, and the others giving their pool time away for me to do this thing. It was honestly crazy pressure. I was just like, oh my gosh, everyone’s watching me. If I don’t pull this, it’s going to be pretty sad. But I was able to stomp it, and it was just like a weight was lifted. It was crazy cool,” said Meola.
Elsewhere the event continued to serve up entertainment. Clips of Chippa Wilson body checking the ring of fire and Jacob Szekely boosting a backside reverse with his board on fire also did the rounds on social media. While it made for comical viewing, the event was once again proof that wave pool’s are really the home of pushing what is possible in aerial surfing.
