For a man of almost forty years who looks like a hamburger on a griddle, an overgrown Annie doll, Jamie O continues to delight.

The 2003 Pipe Master, who is 190 pounds of rock hard muscle with 40 pounds of sturdy protective fat, and who once told me, “A big gut helps you breathe bigger and better” and who leaves no muffin unbuttered, has delivered a world first by recording his heat at the Vans Pipe Masters with a camera on his helmet.

For a man of almost forty years who looks like a hamburger on a griddle, an overgrown Annie doll, Jamie O’Brien continues to delight.

And, though the heat, which opens the day, is slow and operated under a day when the breeze is so light even the peach trees aren’t stirred, Jamie appears maddeningly cool.

We meet Nathan and Ivan Florence in the pre-contest crowd, we see the tiny ant people distant on the beach and we feel the turbulence of several wipeouts.

More than essential.

Grotesque, but hypnotizing!"

In the dying light of a winter’s afternoon in County Clare, Ireland, we find Nathan Florence, the Only Fans star and brother of US Olympian John John, challenging the noted Irish big-wave Rileys.

Florence, who is a twenty-eight-year-old married powerlifter, says he “rode barely any waves” and that the sets were only useable via jetski assist.

“Towing was Russell Bierke, Conor Maguire and Ollie O’Flaherty. They were absolutely sending it. They did offer me the rope if you were wondering, I declined to tow, just wasn’t feeling it. Almost no waves were made so just made a decision to not push at this time, sometimes gotta listen to the gut!”

Yeah, this short is eleven minutes of waiting for something to happen, but the POV angle during these sessions is a favourite theatrical genre of mine.

Vicious, delicious and horrifying.