Watch: Derek Ho Performs A Bizarre Mambo With Mother Pipeline

Derek Ho is 55 years old and still makes Pipeline his bitch on most every swell. 

But recently, on what was likely the North Shore’s last run of significant surf in the 2019/2020 season, Derek took it one step further. 

Taking off behind the boil on a certified bomb, Derek lost his balance on the drop, then proceeded to hit a warble on the bottom and lose his back foot off the board. Somehow, the 1993 World Champ held himself up against the face of the wave and managed to sneak under the lip before it could compress him against the swiss cheese reef.

Due to this necessary over-correction, Derek was then forced to revert quickly away from the wave face, which put him into a standing-scorpion position and heading back toward the falling lip. That’s when the spit provided enough counter-force to right Derek’s posture and put him back on a straight-and-narrow path out of the mouth of the tube. 

It is, quite easily, the most stupendous tube dance we’ve seen in this calendar year. And yet, it’s eerily reminiscent of a ride that Derek’s nephew, the vivacious Mason Ho, had back in December of 2019. 

Shall we reminisce?