Nat Young, suds and soda at Teahupoo this morning, Tahiti

In round two of the Billabong Pro, Tahiti, Nat Young had one of those undoubtedly infuriating heats where he surfed well, had great wave selection, put up a very solid heat total, and lost. It’s an easy and overused reference, but f’real, with his 16.66 total Nat would’ve won every other heat in his round except two. Oh, and his own of course, which happened to co-star a steaming CJ Hobgood, who clocked 18.13 and didn’t glance in the rearview. If you’re gonna lose, that’s the way to do it. Which doesn’t make it any easier to swallow, but… y’know. So anyway, this is today, early morning at Chopes, before the event started for the day. It’s a foam party in there, surprisingly un-Chopesian and probably rather hard to pick if it weren’t for the words you’e reading. Hang in there Nat, you’re still one of the best workers on tour. And, one of the best bets. (See the rest of Chris’ work here!)