Taj Burrow and Chippa Wilson, Fiji

If you turn green with envy at tales from the charmed life of a professional surfer, then let your eyes follow this text no further. While you were sleeping, Taj Burrow, Chris ‘Chippa’ Wilson, Jay Davies and Kelly Slater dove over the steel railing of their hired luxury yacht into the deep green soup of Fiji. The gang then paddled over to a six-foot Cloudbreak line-up, beneath the racket of a hired chopper. Onboard the iron butterfly, film-maker Riley Blakeway and photographer John Respondek (who shot this image) captured every moment of beauty and high-performance from the sniper’s view.

The yacht’s the same one that Taj hired a while back, originally to take his parents on an island cruise but later changing plans to a mini-holiday with friends, following a skateboard slam that put dad Vance in hospital. For images from the chopper shoot, keep an eye out for Stab issue 50, on sale first week of May.