Mikey Wright: Dismount to bodysurf to recover

Unless you’ve misplaced your internet, you’d be well aware of Mikey Wright’s spectacular fall-to-bodysurf-to-recovery. And, you probably called bullshit because scepticism is the new black or whatever. Well, here’s the original footage straight from the hard drive of Mikey’s coach, Andy King, and there sure ain’t no games going on here. “Mikey, mate, he’s one of those athletes with a six sense,” says Andy. “He’s grown a foot and a half in a year since this footage but he’s still one of those guys who moves in the water with such flow and effortlessness. His positioning and watching him in the barrel, and then he pulls shit like this… he’s a freak of nature. He’s half fish.”

Stab: A lot of people called the footage fake, Mikey. What’s the deal?
Mikey: (Laughs) Man, it’s real. No joke. I was over in Indo at Lakey Peak with Mick (Fanning) and Louie (Hynd) on a Red Bull trip last year. I didn’t really think much about it, I just thought it was sick that Kingy caught it on film. Now it’s been posted and it’s gone viral.

Talk us through it. I fell off the turn and I was body surfing the wave. I was going along and all of a sudden I saw my board in my peripheries just bounce straight over me. It flicked out from behind and popped up right in front and slid straight under my chest. All I had to do was grab the rail, jump back up and I was away.

You’re telling us it just popped up there? You can see it in the footage, it must have nose-dived or something and bounced over me, into the flats. The way the wave draws off the reef it just dragged it straight underneath me.

When it landed, did it go under you, or did you have to pull yourself onto it? It landed right beside me, just a little in front so I could properly see it. I grabbed hold of the rails and just flicked it underneath me.

Did you think it was going to hit you? Nah, it happened so quickly. I just saw this thing fly past and before I knew it I was up.

What did you think when you kicked out? I was like, fuck that was pretty crazy. I was frothing, because something like that had never happened to me before.

Did you tell Louie and Mick? Yeah, I paddled back out, explained it to ‘em and they couldn’t believe it. When they saw it on the footage afterwards they lost it.

Is it something you’ve been practicing? Nah, definitely not.

Are gals going to throw themselves at you now? (Laughs) Again, definitely not.

Are you going to add it to your next clip? I guess so. I might add a wipeout section.

Yeah, bring back the wipeouts. Why did it take so long to come out? I dunno, I didn’t really think anything of it. I thought it was a bit of a cool clip to watch, that’s about it. When Kingy posted it and it’s gone like it has, it’s pretty surprising. The internet will take anything, hey?

Where was Kingy filming from? He was filming from the hut at Lakeys that overlooks the reef. He said, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Kingy put it down to you being a freak of nature. I reckon it was just a freak of nature thing to happen.