Air drops are funny. When you do one, you feel like you’re falling from the roof of a building, dropping forever until your fins finally connect with something. But here’s a secret: those air drops are way smaller than they feel. While you might’ve felt like you made the craziest drop that’s ever been dropped, the spectator might not have even noticed. Unless you’re Valentin Neves, the surfer on the wave that opens the video you see above.
If most air drops feel bigger than they really are, we can’t imagine what Neves was feeling on this bomb wave at Uluwatu’s Outside Corner. He flies. He hovers. He floats. The wind under his board keeps him fully suspended for a few seconds, and when he makes the drop, he’s so surprised he bottoms turns, sets a line, and just… goes. As one would likely do after a drop like that.
