There’s something kinda reassuring about seeing John John Florence fall in the barrel. It’s nice to have confirmation every once in a while that he’s human after all, even if the absurdly late air-drop which was his route into the tube in question would suggest otherwise. He very nearly made it out, and had he done so there’d have been 10’s across the board, plugged in without a moment’s deliberation. You can watch it above, and then again in more detail below, where it’s accompanied by the live commentary.

The same of course applies to Kelly Slater, and he too makes an appearance in the above video, which showcases the best falls from Round 1 of the Margaret River Pro, the first seven heats of which were held at the The Box, a menacing right-hand slab that doesn’t cause testicles to shrink so much as to flee in abject terror towards the recesses of the body. Who won Wipeout of the Day? Josh Kerr recorded the highest heat total, building on his early tumble down the face of a monster with a full-rotation backflip in the tube (0:45 and 0:58 respectively). Ricardo Christe (0:27) and Cj Hobgood (0:33) vie with Kerrzy for the single most dramatic fall.

“After that first wipeout I was out of breath for most of the heat,” said Kerr after his heat, and before taking himself off to the medical tent. “That one really took it out of me, my head is pretty full of water right now.”