Jamie O’Brien has surfed a lot of dangerous sessions in his life. He’s paid his dues, too. He’s broken both his legs surfing Pipeline. He’s also been knocked unconscious multiple times at Pipe. He came very close to breaking his back a few years ago. That said, YouTube is partial to a bit of hyperbole here and there, so when Jamie says this was “the most dangerous session of his life,” it should be taken with a small grain of salt.
“You take calculated risks,” O’Brien told Bert Kreischer. “Most of the time, we’re very calculated and we’re following the correct way and sometimes we’re just getting lucky, honestly. You put yourself in harm’s way so many times, and something bad is going to happen. If you’re jumping on every single plane, tracking every single swell, believe it. Something’s going to happen… if you’re chasing it, your odds are getting higher and higher.”
While O’Brien may not be chasing it as hard as he once was — having a family will do that to a guy — he’s still on the hunt. And when hunting giant waves in Mexico, he’s a big fan of the Jet Ski step off.
It might be frowned upon in some circles, but it cannot be denied that using a Jet Ski is going to get you more waves. Less paddling, more speed, and the ability to get into waves much earlier pretty much guarantees it, but the problem is that it becomes harder to be choosy about your waves. The earlier you’re onto one, the harder it becomes to know what’s going to happen on the tail end. Luckily for Jamie, he’s pretty well versed in these things.
But on the flip side, you can just send it all the time every time, much like Poopies does. And Poopies did just that by donning his waterskis and getting hauled into a handful of sizable waves. But the shenanigans came to a halt when the real swell showed its teeth. Check it out, below.
