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Soli Bailey, the Indigenous Australian pro surfer from Byron Bay best known for his performance on the Championship Tour (eventually leaving the CT for bigger things), with his insane tube-riding abilities, recently made another jaunt to Indonesia. Unfortunately, this one was not without a bit of blood.
Bailey, who learned to surf from his father at a very early age and claims surfing is “all he ever wanted to do,” likely had second thoughts for a split moment when he nearly sliced his left nipple off during an Indonesian charter boat trip through the outer Sumatran Islands.
The incident occurred only two days into a trip onboard the Mango, which, according to the surf travel company Mangalui Ndulu, has been taking surfers to remote waves for over two decades. Soli reported the waves being heavy.
Bailey then posted a graphic photo of his bloody, severed nipple with the caption, “A couple of crazy freight trains on day two which led to an unlucky injury, getting the nose of my board in the left side of my chest leaving me with a gaping hole for the rest of the trip but the last day was too good not to get amongst it!”
Was this freak accident a product of chance or the result of fate? Soli is known to have said he would rather lose a nipple than surf in the Olympics. Two years later, here we are: Soli with one nipple (almost) detached from his body, and no sign of him planning to surf in the Olympics.
Soli is also not the only surfer to have a travel ordeal in Sumatra and further afield: Nathan Florence’s board recently sliced open his elbow so badly he had to fly out of Indonesia altogether.
Luckily for Soli, his injury wasn’t trip ending. The next slide in his Instagram post revealed the re-attached nipple, stitched back onto his chest, and of course photos of the undisclosed, but very much pumping, waves he scored on the trip. Despite the gnarly injury, it looks like Bailey is doing what he does best: getting out into nature, finding shade in remote locales, and getting amongst it – with or without two attached nipples.
