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If you ever doubted how wave pools and ocean surfing could coexist, look no further than Jacob Szekely’s latest ocean maneuver. While on a surf trip in Bali, Szekely landed his first-ever Superman Finger Flip in the ocean, a maneuver he first perfected in pools.
“I’ve never done that in the ocean,” Szekely said after landing the maneuver. “Ten years of trying a finger flip in the ocean and I finally just did it.”
“I’ve done it in the pool and some said it didn’t count,” Szekely wrote in the caption of his Instagram post. “So here it is! I’m beyond stoked to finally put one down in the ocean! Ain’t nobody flippin’ their boards except for me and Baja Koala (Kevin Meza)! And don’t forget I started that finger flipping sh*t in 2020.”
Pro surfers and elite aerialists, such as Josh Kerr, Sierra Kerr, Owen Wright, Albee Layer, Kevin Meza, and Ben Gravy, joined the comment section to celebrate the accomplishment.
“About time! Very proud of ya,” said aerial innovator Josh Kerr.
“There it is! Let’s go for a double next,” said Kevin Meza, aka the Baja Koala, who also has an array of flip maneuvers in his repertoire.
“That was mental,” said former Championship Tour veteran and Olympic bronze medalist Owen Wright.
Szekely has become one of the most prominent and accomplished wave pool surfers — part of a new breed of YouTube-ing surfers leveraging the consistent ramps that pools provide to build their online following. He’s proven that wave pools and the ocean don’t have to be mutually exclusive; training in the pool directly led to a new maneuver in the ocean. Now the question is how long it will take Szekely to land the double finger flip Meza requested.
