STORY BY – ETHAN DAVIS (STAB)
89% of our IG poll respondents claimed the ‘stale fish flipper’ was the best air ever done. Period.
Day 2 of the Swatch-9’s just wrapped, and Hughie Vaughan is now officially the third-deadliest thing in the sky — behind B2 bombers, ICBMs, and possibly your unc’s drone that he immediately plowed into a power line.
According to BDPS, who was poolside in Texas for the three-day surf-skate-slide circus, Hughie’s internet-breaking banger was the first air he’s landed since greasing that upside-down backside indy full-rote in Shizunami — which netted him a cool $20K USD.
(Fun fact: the invoice for that prize just got approved, which probably added another six feet to the swell of endorphins flooding his cortex today.)
“He didn’t think of that trick in advance. He was trying Kerrupts and started getting weirder and weirder with it — then bam.”
Also worth noting: the no-claim. Ice cold. You know Mikey Wright’s voice would’ve been replaying in his head telling him to keep the gesticulations to a minimum.
Every high-profile surfer and their dog has since weighed in. Some highlights:
- “Good job ripper” — Gabriel Medina
- “Insane” — Italo Ferreira
- “There’s a new standard. That was unbelievable.” — Julian Wilson
- “Is this AI?” — Diplo
- “Wowsers. Had to watch it 50 times just to figure out what happened. Amazing.” — Mick Fanning
- “Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” — Jackson Dorian
- “Wow that was absolutely incredible.” — Jamie O’Brien
- “Best air ever done.” — Jesse Mendes, Eric Geiselman, Jackson Baker
89% of the respondents on Stab’s IG poll concurred: best air ever done.
What we can say is this: Hughie Vaughan just pushed aerial surfing forward, no matter what water it happened in.