This week’s biggest balls award goes to Robbie Maddison. The 34-year old stunt biker risked his life riding across the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti into literally, killer waves. Because you know, adrenaline.
DC Shoes filmed the whole thing and called it “Pipe Dream”. My own name for it is “Change of Underwear”.
Maddison’s done a few of these death-defying adventures in his life. According to the Rolling Stone:
Risk is nothing new to Maddison, a 34-year-old Australian motorbike stunt rider whose resume includes a legendary New Year’s Eve jump onto the top of the Arc de Triomphe in front of the Las Vegas Paris hotel and a history-making leap over the Corinth Canal in Greece. But this was something different; aside from its recognition as having the world’s heaviest reef breaking waves, Teahupo’o is also one of the most dangerous surfing spots on the planet, with five recorded deaths since 2000. Loosely translated from Polynesian, its name means “the pile of heads.”
Umm, so what did you do this weekend? Shoved a burrito in your face I bet. That’s okay. You can make burrito eating an extreme sport also.
Maddison had a near-death wipeout that sounds insane.
The worst possible scenario would be that I took on a “West bomb” wave that comes with an extra elbow, and the main section – where I intended to ride – would close out. Even on a surfboard, you never want to see that…Once I got past the shoulder of the wave, I could clearly see that I was in a West bomb – a death sentence.
There I was on a motorcycle, with the worst thing that could possibly happen. I turned out from the wave and it crashed down behind me, chasing me down. I was picked up and thrown, and my bike landed on my back, knocking all the air out of me. It was the most violent ride I’ve ever been on, tumbling beneath the surface in full gear. Over the next four or five minutes, I only had two split-second moments when my head broke the surface and I could take in a fast breath, only to be yanked back down and tumbled with my bike. Everything was going white. I became completely limp and was prepared to take in a full breath of water, when I finally popped up. I could see the helicopter and Jet Skis, and had a quick moment to wave my arm so that they could locate me.
Well, at least this video has close to 3m views so far. It would really suck for Maddison to risk his life and get like 10,000 views.