Jordy and Teahupoo don’t get on too good. In all his years on tour he’s yet to make a quarter-final at the joint, which for a surfer who’s finished top-12 every year since 2009 is a fairly damning statistic. In fact he’s almost picked up as many injuries there as he has heat wins. At last year’s event he flirted with death, suffering what he reckoned was the worst wipe-out of his life: “I’m just happy to be alive. Nothing else matters right now, as for a moment I thought it was all over. It was easily the most scared I have ever been in the ocean.” In 2009, meanwhile, he was anally penetrated by a sudden spurt of water. But it was at the 2011 Tahiti Pro that he sustained the most serious damage: four broken ribs, damaged cartilage and the next two events on the sidelines, derailing his title challenge for the year (he would finish the season in 7th).

“I never hit the reef,” said Jordy. “I did my second pump and then was on the foam ball, and it sucked me up to the top of the lip and then slammed me down straight on my side, it was a really heavy blow, ripped both sides of my body in two different directions.”