“You actually feel like you are fighting for your life”
The Narrabeen surf star Nathan Hedge needs little to no introduction, of course, a pint-sized firebrand whose courage in waves of consequence, Cloudbreak to Pipe to Teahupoo, is legendary.
In 2022, he and Kelly Slater, remember even back then both men were well into middle age, danced a rigadoon around the world champion Filipe Toledo in excellent six-foot Teahupoo barrels.
Slater and Hedge traded waves, big and perfect, one after the other after the other with Toledo holding priority well out the back, refusing to paddle, one after the other after the other.
Slater, barreled, unable to contain smile.
Hedge, barreled, unable to contain smile or beat, smartly, boss.
Toledo, un-barreled, holding priority for fifteen-odd minutes while Slater and Hedge swapped beneath him.
In the dying seconds, the King of Saquarema swung on a baby tube then punched board in channel.
Now, in an interview with a regional Queensland newspaper, Hedge, along with Pipe Master Bede Durbidge, has issued grave warnings to competitors ahead of the Games.
“You actually feel like you are fighting for your life,” Hedge said. “At the end of most other sporting events you are pretty sure you are going to be alive. You are not going to get limbs ripped off or cut and you are not going to be rescued.
“I dislocated my shoulder out there. I have had teeth pulled through my bottom lip, I have had gashes on my head. There have been some horrific injuries at Tahiti. I have been waiting for the next heat and watched guys get absolutely annihilated, put on the rescue sled and sent off to the hospital and they have put the event on hold.
“Then you have to paddle back out there and re-enter the coliseum again straight after. There have been people who have passed away out there or had horrific injuries. The trade off is that you could get the best wave of your life or you could get the worse beating of your life. You weigh it up.”
Bede Durbidge, meanwhile, was succinct, telling the paper,
“Somebody could die in the Olympics.”
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What…..? Are you saying that it might be worth watching.
squamous ^ basal cell removals can also be provided…debit only/
FM & MTV = big black cows and bravo toros!
Great photo to lead.
FUck yeah.
“we’ve all lived a clean life…”
Steely Dan w/e…
need an 8-ball and loose quarters…
uni?
Steely Dan is sick
of surfing…no announcement they just played SHOW BIZ KIDS…suck my old skool!
Can’t believe Dez has seven kids
Well, a little shark scare might be nice too.
With this forecast , sounds like they will be staring death in the knees.
There’s kinda a tropical storm inbound though, isn’t there? Potentially really weird Teahupo’o, but still decent injurious potential. Hopefully. Well, honestly, I was hoping it would be flat.
ankles.
Well they issued meth to troops on all sides during the big WW2 to turn them into fearless robots willing to throw them selves repeatedly at deaths door , not much different than so called surf ledgends throwing themselves over the ledge at maxing Pipe Chopes and the Bay coked or methed to the eyeballs.
Quit trying to steal these gladiators thunder. They will conquer Choopoo and make it their bitch! I can’t wait to watch them fully commit to going…..
We’ll see hard hard they have to fight for their lives with the projected small waves coming…we do know that Olympian Kerrigan took a little knee bash similar to a small wave reef bounce and she still alive.
Ah yes, back when I took a G10 everywhere! Fiji, 2006-ish, Namotu Island during the evening wrestling tournament. Andy, great arms, I remember.
He pumped Irons!
ongoing safety meetings…”So how many do we launch?”
did he know?
Andy? That I admired his arms?
Thats a good shot Derek , I actually scrolled back and forth on the page trying to find out the credit. Thought it was steve sherman!
The highest compliment!
Do a photo essay from that era with more Andy and friends
I have so many! Will find.
Update!
Guess what Bede, athletes have died in the Olympics. More winter than summer games. Shit, every time I watch a Luge or Skeleton event, I always think that guy/gal has death as a co-pilot on that sled.
It wasn’t olympics but i remember a downhill event where a guy snapped his pelvis in 2 – literally cut through femoral artery on snow bled out on the hill – think you could see the blood trail as he crashed and slid down
never forgotten that heavy!!!