Meet your 2016 Wipeout of the Year Nominees

God lord, that Tom Dosland freefall’s worth a few more rewinds. It’s been a serious season for XXL juice and the wipeout of the year nominations solidify that. Everyone loves a good spill, they translate evenly across the board from religious surfers, to people who’ve never seen the ocean. A six foot full-roter into the flats has nowhere near the same universal connection as watching somebody skip down the face while an ominous ball of whitewash looms behind. It brings about that, holy shit I think that guy just died feeling.

“It’s not like I want to wipeout,” Nicollo Porcella (who, if kite surfing got a nomination would be in here twice) told Stab. You’ll recall his tiny arm protruding a Chope’s lip during the Code Orange swell in July? Or the Judo kick to a Jaws lip a few months back? “I want to make the biggest waves and pull into the biggest barrels. But making it through a heavy wipeout is almost as good as making a wave. If you want to do something new, it happens; you fall. Falling is part of succeeding and the bigger you want to go, the bigger you’re going to fall.”

This year’s Wipeout of the Year features a 5,000 dollar pot, three grand to the surfer, two grand to the videographer.

Here’s your 2016 nominees (in order of appearance):
– Matt Becker (Santa Barbara, Ca) at Mavericks, February 4, 2016. Video by Dan Norkunas
– Pedro Calado (Rio de Janeiro, Bra) at Puerto Escondido, May 3, 2015. Video by Daniel Balbuena

- Tom Dosland (Honolulu, Hawaii) at Jaws, January 27, 2016. Video by Bruno Lemos
- Garrett McNamara (Haleiwa, Hawaii) at Maverick’s, January 7, 2016. Video by Chris Wilson
- Niccolo Porcella (Sardegna, Italy) at Teahupoo, July 22, 2015. Video by Tim Pruvost.

Who’s got your vote?