Dino Adrian, West Oz beachbreak, Australia

Calling swell size ain’t easy. Overcook and you can appear feeble, undercook and people will mutter words like “Hero”. Go to Hawaii, which has it’s own sizing scale, or WA, where the waves are powerful and men have hair on their chests, and things get even tougher. “I’d say it was solid six foot,” says photog Jamie Scott of the day pictured here. “Maybe some bigger sets.” Whatever size you wanna call this, it sure looks perfect, right? Unfortunately, Dino Adrian (pictured) chose this morning to have an off-day. “He was having a shocker,” laughs Jamie. “We went to the box early on and he got so lit  up. He got smashed on the reef, put a hole in his arm and there was blood dripping outta his elbow.” And things didn’t improve. “Then we went to this beachie and it was the same, he was getting hammered. It was a pretty bad morning for him.”

Luckily Dino redeemed himself at a wave in Yallingup that afternoon where he nabbed one of the day’s best waves. Which is way more his style. “He charges, he’s so amazing to watch,” says Jamie. “In big, solid waves, he’s pretty much the man. There’s a lot of chargers out here in WA, but he’s up there with the best. He’s amazing with critical takeoffs and always seems to find the best waves.”

PWCs can be something of a necessity in WA. A safety net, of sorts. Yadin Nicol, WT rookie and WA native, owns a ski but since he lives in Cali, he leaves it at Dino’s house in WA. So, by default, it kinda belongs to Dino now. On the day you see pictured, Dino took the ski down to the beach but left it parked on the sand. Just in case.

Obviously, this image is shot from water. But Stab wonders, with all the unspeakable incidents that’ve befallen WA of late, how’s a man to brave the water with nothing but fins? “Oh, you mean G-dubs… great whites,” says Jamie grimly. “You just put it at the back of your mind. There’s not much you can do about it. You can’t just stay out the water. I mean, hopefully they don’t like big surf. I wasn’t really thinking about it that day. In waves like that, you’re more worrying about waves landing on your head.”

Check out more work from Jamie, here.