Two Lucases Put Their Chins To Fiberglass, Suffer Very Different Fates Yesterday In Hawaii

It’s in a beast’s nature to rise from slumber when those around it are least prepared.

If you slept through the fast-moving groundswell that saved grace at the Pipe Pro, you can get yourself back in the loop with Jack O’Neill Patterson’s report of the day — still steaming in our Premium aisle.

One thing that, season after season, seems to settle the score between Sunny Garcia’s proverbial kittens and lions is that the latter will swing and pounce once the buoys start rattling.

A couple of hours ago, our wireless bricks lit up with North Shore tales of two Lu(c/k)ases.

A certified lion and a fixture when water becomes heavy, Lucas Godfrey took off characteristically deep into an OTW bomb, set his line, but found no clear exit. He took a beating and the following set wave on the head before raising his arm for assistance. A handful of surfers party-waved their way to the inside to check on him and get him to safety.

We were told Lucas fractured his L2 vertebra and was waiting for an MRI to confirm whether everything else was still intact. Hopefully, he’ll walk the pain off and be back in the water for the remainder of the season.

On a more uplifting note — if his 2024 competitive performances hadn’t made it clear enough — Lukas Skinner is putting in the (hard) work to graduate to lionhood, solidified by scraping into a bomb that might just be the best wave the Brit has caught in the last 17 years.

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This OTW monster earned him a standing ovation from bystanders and his team house, where Kekoa Bacalso — who has surely seen more than his fair share of waves of the winter along this stretch — couldn’t contain the joy and excitement after witnessing it firsthand.

Skinner said of the wave, “That was so f#*%ing scary, I almost didn’t go! I pulled up and was just like, ahhhhhhhhhhh!”

Glad you did, lad.