Bodyboarding is seen by many as the slightly rubbishy younger brother of surfing. After all, you never saw David Hasselhoff swinging his moobs down the sand on Bay Watch with a bodyboard tucked under his arm, did you?

Actually, forget that mental image. Please, try to forget it. Try?

Sorry.

Anyway. Yes. Bodyboarding. To many people it’s the runt of the arsing-about-in-waves litter. But what if you take a tiny bodyboard into some of the most dangerous waves in the world?

That’s exactly what Aussie bodyboarding pro Shane Ackerman has done. He headed to both Shipstern Bluff in Tasmania and Teahupo’o in Tahiti which, along with Pipeline in Hawaii, make up the most fatal lumps of water on earth.

As opposed to regular surfing, Ackerman was on his bodyboard, which pretty much means that getting thrown under by the monstrous waves he was playing in is assured, every single time.

The results are unquestionably gnarly, but also brain-fryingly impressive.