It’s a bold claim, but when the man making it has 11 WSL World Titles under his belt and is widely recognised as the best surfer ever to have stepped on a board, who are we to disagree?
Footage of Nathan Florence (John John’s younger brother) paddling into this insane Teahupo’o wave emerged just this week and none other than Kelly Slater himself claimed it was “hands-down, the best wave paddled ever at Teahupo’o in my book”.
Which given the iconic status of the wave itself – and the number of incredible sessions that have gone down here over the years – is quite a claim.
But watch it again and look at the steepness of the wave face – how the hell does he stay up when he’s basically free-falling down the equivalent of a 5-storey building? We can kind of see what Kelly means…
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