Arguably one of the best Pipeline surfers in history, his outrageous natural ability matched by his outrageous approach to life, Briley gained a reputation in the early ‘90s as an extraordinary tube-rider and inveterate risk-taker. The fact he surfed as well as he did despite a physique befitting a professional darts player made it all the more impressive.

Other pastimes included firearms, illicit substances, strippers and traffic accidents. He was never far from the edge, and in fact often over it; on one occasion he rolled his truck down a cliff face, just a few months after breaking his back in a dirt-bike crash. “Nothing could stop me at that point,” he would later say. “I’d wake up still loaded from the night before, take big bong hits and go surf Pipe.” It was hardly a lifestyle conducive to longevity, and Briley had the presence of mind to realise this. He held back on the partying, held back on the surfing, and largely disappeared from public view towards the end of the ‘90s, reappearing every now and then inside plus-sized Indo or North Shore barrels.