Owen Wright, and a vibrant portrait of higher living! Tahiti

There’s a reason why Owen Wright was the showman at Fiji and never looked like spilling the win. It’s because he’d done the time in prep. Ow had already done two trips to Teahupoo on the back of swells before the event. His confidence being inside, going frontside, was soaring. And the result came. Here, he takes shelter in a Chopes banger, wears a smile and points his fingers in the direction of his ranking ascend. “Owen was out sitting deeper than everyone else, taking the waves no one else wanted,” photog Rod Owen tells Stab. “This was the same session that Michel Bourez fucked up his hand.” And, broke a vertebrae for that matter. But Mr. Wright is always at home when it’s heavy. “He’s just an animal,” says Rod.