You’re not going to make every wave you take off on. Sorry. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Jamie O’Brien has spent a lot of time wiping out on Pipeline waves. He’s spent a lot of time riding them, too, but one cannot ride waves without also falling off of waves. The art of the wipeout is a tough one.
Unless you grew up surfing barreling waves, you might not have the necessary innate knowledge it takes to make your body do what it should do when you’ve taken off just a hair too late. Ideally, of course, you’re pin-dropping and penetrating instead of starfishing and setting up a yard sale made of broken leashes, broken surfboards, and a shredded wetsuit.
Jamie, as you can see at the halfway point in this video below from Off Da Lip, has that pin-drop stuck in his brain as muscle memory. You’re not going to make every wave you take off on, and it’s good to know what the proper escape route is.
