Watch: Koa Rothman, life behind the foamball

Mr Rothman’s out of the water due to injury. “I’ve got a fractured rib,” he tells Stab. “I can’t surf right now. The only time I’ve surfed in the past month was the Eddie.” Koa, in the most prestigious big wave event on earth was a beautiful depiction of raw charging. The kid took some brutal beatings and with a fractured rib, Waimea’s wrath to him had to have been more palpable than most. “My first heat I had so much adrenaline that I didn’t really feel it. My second heat, I was pretty sore. I had to do something though. I was so psyched to get into the Eddie, I’ve been wanting to be in that contest forever. It was up there with the biggest Waimea I’ve ever seen surfed, for sure. Surfing it with just my friends instead of 300 guys out was something I’ll never forget. It’s like Snapper out there!” Koa laughs. “Well… maybe not that bad.”

Pipeline in seasick colour. Photo: Keo

In his downtime, he decided to whip up this fast paced, deep tunnel oriented edit. It seems the kid lives behind the foamball, constantly getting spit out by a Birmingham 1963 fire hose, without the racial tension. “I put the edit together myself,” Koa continues. “I couldn’t get my friend to do it and I’ve got time on my hands since I’m injured, so I just figured it out and did it. This is the first edit I’ve ever made myself. I used Final Cut, it wasn’t as hard as I imagined it would be. I got the clips and put them down. With the song I felt like it didn’t really matter how it was edited. I don’t like edits that are overdone, anyway. I just like good clips and a nuts song that gets me psyched to surf.” And, Koa didn’t miss the mark. This clip’s electric, filled with elevator drops, huge pits and unfathomable stoke.

Kegging. Photo: Heff

“There’s one Jaws clip, and a bunch of Pipe waves,” he says. “Everything in there is from this year, except two waves at Pipe. It’s been an amazing winter. Swell-wise, it’s the most consistent I’ve ever seen it. There hasn’t been a Pipe swell in the last two weeks, it’s just too big!”

“I’m really stoked on that last water shot,” Mr Rothman wraps up. “With Kala (Alexander) behind me, but the Jetski the guy was shooting on had to speed up to get out of there. Right where I cut it, it goes all shaky. I wish I had the whole clip of that wave from the water, that’s my favourite clip in the edit.”

Koa navigates the beast, while Kala gets devoured. Photo: Noyle