Photo: Griffin Colapinto. Photo: Cait Miers//WSL
TV broadcasts of surf contests don’t always do the waves, or the performances, of athletes justice. Waves look smaller than they are from that slightly elevated, wide shot. And aerial surfing looks less and less critical than it actually is. Everything looks “flat” in two dimensions.
That’s all just a matter of perspective, of course, but Griffin Colapinto’s 10-point air in the Quarterfinal of the Margaret River Pro was one of those maneuvers so massive that you knew it was a big deal right away. One angle of the 360 stood out from the rest in all the highlights and replays, though, and that was the drone shot. It’s probably the only perspective that shows the insane height of Griff’s punt as well as just how big of a section he cleared only to land about halfway to the flats.
Colapinto was shown the drone angle as soon as he got out of the water and even he had a similar reaction. He later called it “one of the most incredible moments of my life” in a post-heat interview, but he was a bit more colorful in another candid moment fresh out of the water.
“I think that was the best f**king moment of my career right there,” he said.
Colapinto has some work cut out for him to get into this year’s top five at Cloudbreak now that the cut is out of the way. He’s currently at 11th in the rankings with names like Jack Robinson, Filipe Toledo, and Ethan Ewing all between him and the fifth spot. That’s a lot of leap frogging to get to Cloudbreak, but his best performance of the year (second at the Margaret River Pro) certainly helped the cause. He’s also won at least one contest a year in the past three seasons (two in 2022, one in 2023, and two in 2024), so he’s probably not counting himself out of the title race yet.
