Woah, Who’s This Wyatt Guy?

Been watching a heap of surf clips lately. Big waves, small waves, airs, tubes, foils getting rocks thrown at them, flared-gender-reveals-at-Jaws, weird surf team challenges…

Strangely, you can actually have too much of a good thing, the baseline of dopamine ebbs, yet another finely-executed air reverse fails to delight. I think the formal term for this condition is called a first world problem: woe is me, too many surf clips. 

Very serious condition. 

I hadn’t heard of Wyatt McHale before. Now I have. I didn’t follow him on insty before. Now I do. There’s not too much to say about Wyatt really other than his surfing is just really nice to watch. Well-rounded, powerful, technical, plus, he’s a bit of a maniac in big waves. 

Despite his gaunt, ectomorph frame, Wyatt’s carves throw bathtubs of agua, inspiring for those like myself nicknamed ‘Schmegal’ and commonly passed as a bulimic. You’re giving the string beans hope, Wyatt. 

“I was in Bali with Jett Schilling and Crosby Colapinto,” says Wyatt. “We had been there for a couple weeks and the waves were pretty average, so we were getting kinda antsy to get out of there. We saw this swell pop up and Pete Mathews kept telling us how good the waves were gonna be in Sumbawa.”

“Long story short, Pete convinced us to rent a van and drive across Indo overnight to go catch this swell. None of us had ever driven stick shift before, but Crosby handled the drive over and we showed up the next day to some of the best waves I’ve ever seen.”

On his last week of the trip, Wyatt suffered a nasty concussion making the mammoth 40-hour van-van-plane trip home especially punishing. “I have dealt with some pretty bad post-concussion symptoms since then and am still working through it today. I’m definitely getting better though and hoping to be back to 100% for the digital Triple Crown this winter.” 

Just in case you needed another story prompt for wearing a helmet.

Check ‘Warm’ here, it’s really good stuff.