Don’t try this at home. Or anywhere else, really. Photo: Jamie O’Brien // YouTube
How young is too young to start surfing? It’s a question many wave-riding parents face, and the answer could be quite different, depending on who you ask.
For the upper echelon of the sport, though, wondering what age their children can tackle waves of consequence is a whole other dilemma. The limit has certainly been pushed, if not found outright. Nazare has been ridden by 13-year-olds Ana Gabriela Pessoti Dagostini and Kamiel Deraeve. Australian Brody Mulik took on The Box at the age of 13. Twelve-year-old Kelia Mehani Gallina qualified for the Teahupo’o contest. Sierra Kerr seems to have been riding slabs since birth.
But six months might be pushing it – as Jamie O’Brien found out on a recent trip to Mexico, where the Pipe legend strapped on a baby carrier and decided to get barreled.
Of course, he didn’t actually take his young son surfing. JOB avoided a call from CPS by filling that baby carrier with a life-sized doll, to approximate the experience of getting tubed with his spawn. The result, predictably, was the udder obliteration of the simulated infant.
“Literally, I got so pounded, me and Kolohe,” said O’Brien, holding the rubber baby’s head aloft. “Broke his head, broke his neck. He got absolutely drilled. Parents, don’t try this at home, surfing with your kid in waves of consequence.”
