How To Break Your Back At Pipeline With Leo Fioravanti

“It was just the most painful thing I’ve ever felt in my life,” says Roman, Leo Fioravanti on breaking two vertebrae and tearing two ligaments. When Rome comes to mind, surfing’s unsurprisingly absent. Unless the subject is Leo, Italy’s first world tour qualifier, and the only Roman surfer who’s last name you can’t spell nor pronounce. In 2015, Leo entered the Volcom Pipe Pro and acquainted himself with the reef at Pipeline’s penchant for cracking vertebras – as Dane Reynolds experienced earlier this week  – as well as pelvises, skulls and limp bodies rising to the surface. There’s a reason Pipe’s considered the world’s deadliest wave. In 2016, Leo returned to the event and by the end of the year had qualified for the world stage with poise. Here the 19-year-old joins Occy on his morning commute podcast. Oh, we’re feeling cosmopolitan now!