Bruce Irons burning Jamie O, prone on the software, Macaronis

Late Tuesday evening, June 14.

“Why’d I ride the boog?”, asks Jamie O’Brien. “The captain wanted to watch me boogieboard and I thought it was a good idea. I was under pressure ’cause the whole boat was watching.”

Jamie’s aboard Red Bull’s Minor Threat boat trip in Indo alongside Conner Coffin, K-Lo Andino, Adriano De Souza, Ian Walsh and others. After a long day at Macaronis with no other boats (yup, you can still get offshore Macaronis at four feet without boats on boat changeover days), Jamie took to the lineup on a bodyboard. He rode some of the best waves of the day. “I was stoked, brah,” says Jamie. “I hadn’t ridden a boog for over a year. I waited for a set and got pitted for six or seven seconds. And it felt bigger cause I soul-arched with my chest up and the thing was square – it feels weird being on a boogieboard because the barrel seems so fucken big.”

He was no unskilled rider either, doing that tricky leg stall you see the good bodyboarders employ. Says Jamie: “I used all Mike Stewart’s (Jamie’s pal and former world champ) techniques. He told me: Lean on my front elbow, shift up, lean forward for the speed and when I’m coning out drop my flippers and stall. It worked and I got fucken shacked.”

Jamie rode four waves, one with Bruce Irons, pictured. When Bruce saw Jamie stealing the show with hoots from the boat, he hustled the gear and took to the lineup. “That was my wave,” says Bruce. “Seniority.”

Jamie laughs before Bruce lights up. “I nose dived and my legs went in the air,” he says. “I cannot believe my legs did not break.”

“I was trying to do this super torpedo-fast thing,” says Jamie. “But ended up doing this scorpion behind him when I got dragged over the falls.”

Good times. – Sam Mcintosh