Hughie Vaughan’s blown up in the past week. He was already on a lot of people’s radars, but landing something that’s immediately dubbed “the best air ever” tends to take things to a whole new level.
Now, here’s an interesting fact about Hughie’s stale fish flipper (the name Tony Hawk gave it): that was the first time he’d ever done it. Vaughan admitted that tidbit in a television interview with 9News Australia, which is another point that stands out about how much hype there’s been over the air. It’s not often surfers end up on television unless they’ve won a competition or caught some kind of world record wave. This was neither, so it tells you a little bit about how the accomplishment matches up.
“When Tony Hawk posted it, it was like a game changer. (It) made me realize what I had done,” he said on the morning show.
For an event in its second year (in surfing, that is), The Nines is making a massive impact. The Nines have brought world records to skiing and snowboarding through the years with the expression-session event format. And thanks to wave pools, The Nines is having the same impact on surfing. Athletes are pulling off insane maneuvers we might never see or even attempt in the ocean. But Vaughan actually says his next accomplishment will be bringing the stale fish backflip into the ocean. That’d truly be game changing.
“When I went over there I didn’t really know what I was gonna do. It was kind of like a spur of the moment thing,” he said
Of course, now he knows it’s possible. It’s just a matter of finding the right moment, the perfect but very rare opportunity to give it a go on a natural wave. And even if we aren’t seeing this backflip in the ocean anytime soon, we now know we can count on next year’s edition of The Nines to push the sport even further.
