În a terrifyingly frank confession just released, Nathan Florence, Dirk and Natasha Ziff’s successor as Waterman of the Year as determined by the good burghers of the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, has admitted he nearly died in Brazil after attempting to surf a wave almost seventeen storeys high and breaking in three feet of water.
A wave that kills for malice and for sport.
The usually low-key Florence, who is a thirty-year-old Gemini and married to the daughter of Hawaiian muscle god Kai Garcia aka Kaiborg, described the wipeout as “extremely violent. It was one of those waves when you realise you’re falling and you’re worried about what’s about to happen. I got really lucky. Had I slammed the rocks in front of the wave, had I slammed into those and then got pulled over into the other rocks, it would’ve been game over. Just the speed I was travelling underwater.”
As unflappable, or as nihilistic, as ever, Nathan Florence added brightly, “But I didn’t! So I got really fortunate! And now I think the plan is to do some paddling today.”
Yesterday I wrote that Nathan Florence had “conquered” the Shock Slab, near Rio, but in truth, the wave nearly conquered him. (Watch wipeout and back story here.)
Today, in part two, which includes Florence’s near-death story, he throws himself back into the fray, this time paddling the joint. Also in the mix is the Italian Niccolo Porcella whom you may remember from a terrific wipeout at Teahupoo a while back. When he attempts the same manoeuvre at the Shock Slab, he is gone for many seconds.
“Am I confused or did he not pop up?” says Nathan Florence’s wife Mahina.
It’s a video that will take a hammerlock on your emotions.
Powerful and undeniably essential.
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