Julian Wilson and John John Florence: The bigger oop

How could we resist? How could we resist sitting these two OMG-REALLY alley oops next to each other? The first is performed by John John Florence, the highest air ever done in competition (perhaps until today), stomped in the first round of the Oakley Pro at Keramas back in June. The second was greased by Julian Wilson this morning in the Rip Curl Pro at Peniche, in Portugal.

John needed a 9.50 to skip round two, and with the clock winding down, he played in the lip, took the brakes off and unloaded on the lip. Perfectly rotated, he stomped clean into perhaps the only un-subtle claim we’ve ever seen from the Hawaiian. And, 10 points. “I was in the air, and then I saw the bottom, everything happened so fast and I just landed perfect,” said John John afterwards. “I think I claimed it super hard (he did) but I was super stoked. The ankle brace gives me confidence to do things and it’s actually feeling really good now. I’m so stoked to be back in the water, and surfing out here. The waves are amazing. I was sitting up there earlier watching the air wind, and I was super psyched on trying to do an air. But I had to calm myself down not to go out there and try airs the whole time. Then that one came and had that section on it, and I just went for it…”

Jules needed something, because Damo Hobgood was leading the heat. So he took off, belted down the line, and hit the perfect slingshot section, just as a hint of backwash jacked the wave. He completely extended, completely rotated, and greased the landing into a wholly-understandable double fist claim. And 10 very well-deserved points. ”I felt like I bit off a bit more than I could chew when I was in the air on that one, but somehow I pulled it, that section was really really good. At that point of the heat I was really quite nervous, I only had one opportunity to do an air, and I was lucky enough to capitalise on it. That’s the thing I love about competition, you put yourself in those situations where you don’t even for a second think about not making it. In a freesurf I probably would have pulled the eject button like halfway through that air, that was for sure the biggest alley-oop I’ve ever done.”

And so, we open the floor. Which is the higher?