Surfer Pulls Inverted Flip, Breaks the Internet (Clip)

A backflip? A side flip? An upside-down 540? 360? Technically, and to avoid the running controversy in what to call aerial surf spins, it’s an inverted air reverse. But regardless of what to call it, to quote Sherlock Holmes via Arthur Conan Doyle:

“I know what is good when I see it.”

The air (and the session) came from a training day, in which Henry was being coached by Championship Tour veteran Bede Durbidge, at the Gold Coast of Australia’s Duranbah Beach. It wasn't the only massive air Henry threw down during the session either. There were a couple other haymakers, too.

“A session to remember,” Durbo called it. “That was next level.”

For his part, here’s what Henry had to say:

“That was the best air I’ve ever done in my life. First wave, as well. I was like shaking afterwards.”

In the annals of progressive aerial surfing history, will this one go down with the greats? Will it reside alongside Kelly Slater’s nearly-landed rodeo flip at the 1999 Pipe Masters? With Albee Layer’s 2018 double alley oop? Christian Fletcher and Matt Archbold’s aerial surfing of the late 1980s, which propelled the maneuvers into the modern era?

Probably not. But it’s still pretty damn good.