Michel Bourez
Michel Bourez
Joining his brother on the list is the world tour’s sole Tahitian representative, affectionately known by many as “the Spartan” due to his godlike physique and his tendency to use it for the purposes of heroically large turns. Heroically large barrels too. A wipeout during the first big swell to hit Tahiti this year plunged Michel fist-first into the Chopes reef, leaving him with a broken vertebra and broken hand. Surfacing just in time for an even bigger bomb to detonate on his head, he grabbed his board with his remaining good hand and held on to it for dear life, feeling it snap in two underwater.
Later that day he underwent reconstructive surgery, doctors inserting various bits and pieces of metal into his hand, and spend the next 8 weeks or so recovering, missing out on Brazil (result!) and Fiji (major bummer!). His weapon of choice on the day in question? A 6’0! He reckons a 6’8 and he’d have made the drop no worries.
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