Unidentified, The long drop at Off the Wall, Hawaii

It takes a lot to throw yourself over the edge of something like this. No matter how bad it looks from shore, it’s always worse from the water. You start questioning why you’ve put yourself in this situation. You start questioning a lot of things. This unfortunate gent should undoubtedly be commended, despite his anonymity.

This photo was taken moments after a call went out over the loudspeakers at the Pipe Masters, advising that Dusty Payne had scored highly enough in his Backdoor heat against Mick Fanning to beat the Australian and stay on tour in 2011. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly-oblivious beach-goers in this shot. According to photog Jimmy Wilson: “The whole beach groaned when they watched this dude fall out of the sky. Bad wipeout.” Yes it is.