Hear the steady thud of exploding waves! See Nathan's face tense with fear!

It ain’t over to the fat lady has emptied her lungs or, in the case of the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, the contest ain’t done until Nathan Florence has dumped his point of view footage.

Nathan Florence, the middle of the three Florence boys although his red and girlish face makes him appear to be the baby of the brothers, finished seventh. It was a disappointing result for a man who must’ve felt destined to back up his Vans Pipe Masters with an Eddie.

In waves that had most men disappearing behind their armchairs, Nathan poked his nose into the intoxicating world of big wave surfing at the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational: hear the steady thud of exploding waves, see Nathan’s face tense with fear.

Soon, we see Nathan beginning his arrogant dance, taunting the thirty-foot waves in his bold, warlike way. Look closely, click on the option to watch the film at 2160p (this resolution offers four times the number of pixels as a Full HD 1080p screen) to see the scornful trembling of his nostrils.

Eventually Nathan, the Hebrew word for God’s Gift, the name of King David’s third son, even rides the famous Waimea Shorebreak, and which is captured entirely on his GoPro camera.

Although this is disappointing, angle wrong etc.

He may look like a hamburger on the griddle but if there are any rungs on that big-wave hierarchy Jamie O’Brien is right at the top.

The carrot-topped king of Pipeline, last seen in these pages when a groundswell of fury forced shoemaker Vans to put him in the Pipe Masters after organisers told him he was too old to compete with the kids, has released an epic behind-the-scenes video from yesterday’s’ Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. 

The forty-one-year-old YouTube blogger with 1.3 million subscribers, may look like a hamburger on the griddle, freckled stomach pushed forward, a look on his face like a young boy examining a naked woman for the first time, but if there are any rungs on that big-wave hierarchy Jamie O’Brien is right at the top.

In waves that were either sixty-foot, Billy Kemper’s call, or thirty, Claude Aikau’s call, Jamie was adjudged to be the fourth best surfer of the event, behind winner Landon McNamara, Mason Ho and Billy Kemper but ahead of Nathan Florence, Kai Lenny and Koa Rothman.

In this video, Jamie O’Brien brings a touching vulnerability to the big-wave game whispering to the camera, “Let me tell you something, I was scared out of my mind.”

Essential.

"I think about quitting all the time…(pro surfing) doesn't fit my personality."

The big American with the even bigger ass, triple world champ John John Florence, has pulled back the curtain on his private life with a finely crafted sixteen-minute edit of this year’s Australian leg of the pro tour.

John John, thirty-two, husband to Lauryn Cribb and daddy to baby Darwin, was named after the brave little boy, not even three years old and trussed up in a powder blue peacoat, who saluted his dead daddy’s casket in 1963.

A lesser known fact, of course, is John F Kennedy junior got the John-John tag from a White House reporter who misheard JFK senior calling him John twice in a row. No one in the Kennedy fam used it.

In the edit, simply titled Road Trip Through Australia, we see the day-to-day lives of the Florence brothers as they range from Bells to Margaret River, lighting up even the most meagre waves, and the hearts of little fans, wherever they go.

Enjoy it while y’can, of course, because as John John told our old pals at The Inertia,

“I think about (quitting) all the time. It’s hard for me sometimes because my personality doesn’t fit (competing) so well. And especially the new tour over the last couple of years, the environment of it has changed a lot. It doesn’t fit my personality even more so.”