Upon hearing of Dane’s entrance into the Fiji Pro as a wildcard this year, the comment sections of various surf publications were flooded with Dane haters, criticizing his new-found unwillingness and inability to do well in competition. “Should’ve gone to Jay Davies,” said one commenter. “He’s a dad now. He can’t surf well anymore,” said another. Well, it’s safe to say those people, among the many others who had something negative about Mr. Dane, don’t know a damn thing about surfing. Dane made those fools eat their own words after placing an equal 9th at Fiji and taking out the likes of world No. 1, Adriano de Souza, in the process.
Dane’s frontside wrapping man-turns are going to sit very well with the judges at J-Bay. Photo: Kirstin Scholtz / WSL
For those who haven’t heard, Dane got into J-Bay as a wildcard, and he seems so frothed on it that he’s posting “selfie surf pics” about it. The World Surf League just posted this little video of Dane ripping through to the Semifinals back in 2009 and posed the question: “Can he hack it?” Well, WSL, we’d like to answer your question with another set of questions: Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle? Does a bear shit in the woods? Is the Pope Catholic?
