Mitch Coleborn, splitting seams, Indo

The urge to wash off airport and travel grime is always a powerful one. It’s the kinda feeling that’ll make low tide, windblown junk look like a dream. Fresh off the plane to Indo, where he climbed aboard the DC boat trip, Mitch Coleborn was straight into the late afternoon session which was, y’guessed it, windblown, low tide and dumpy on the reef. A whole lot of paddling and even more duckdiving. At this point, Ryan Miller (who shot this) takes the mic: “One wave landed right on Mitch’s head and, keen not to break his board, he refused to bail it. The wave flipped him on his back and had its way with him on the reef. It required a run to the local doctor and quite a few stitches.”

And the reef slicing is just another in Mitch’s recent run of bad luck. “Ever since he made the highlight reel by sticking it to Kelly Slater at the Volcom Fiji Pro, it’s been a downward slide in the injury department,” continues Miller. “A month ago he was in Indo and did his whole back on the reef. Then last week in South Africa he got a bit of staph infection cut out of his foot. Now this cut and grinding across the reef. I’m curious if Kelly maybe has a voodoo doll of Mitch and is putting it to him ever since that round one loss in Fiji.”

While the concept of Kelly practicing voodoo isn’t real hard to imagine (those ungodly talents!), one thing’s for sure: Mitch can handle it. “During the surgery, everyone except Mitch squirmed and panicked while he took it like a man,” says Miller. “I’m pretty sure everyone else on the trip would’ve been running for the nearest air evacuation helicopter if that happened to us. Mitch just gritted his teeth and took it without even a whimper.”