This is Mana Medeiros: an awesome individual and one of the most barreled dudes on the North Shore. And although this may appear to be a simple GoPro barrel selfie, it’s not. It’s actually much, much more. First, in addition to a few supplementary clips, this shot landed Mana a nifty little trophy after being crowned the GoPro Contributor of the Year at the 2014 Surfer Poll Awards.
Above all, this clip illustrates the pure stoke and utter joy surfing brings Mana. Judging from his gestures in the water, and, most importantly, the killer speech he made at the Surfer Poll Awards, Mana is simply humbled to be able to surf and have his name mentioned in the same conversation as his heroes. Skip to the 2:50:00 marker to see Mana’s hysterical GoPro Contributor of the Year acceptance speech.
