Last night at a world premiere in Huntington Beach, California, the Australian stuntman Robbie Maddison revealed his latest game: surfing the world's heaviest wave, Teahupoo, on a customised motorbike.

It was absurdism and bravado mixed with the smart branding of a shoe company. Some thought it was fake, as in, how can a 100kg machine stay afloat long enough to ride a wave, but I was sold, gobbling hooks, lines and sinkers. I knew enough of the players involved in the back end to have faith that they'd never stake their careers on a prank.

As for Teahupoo, this was a brave choice of wave, but unsurprising given Maddison's penchant for the lethal. Once, he even jumped the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Six months later he backflipped over London Bridge.

Teahupoo, of course, is the wave that features on every news feed from roughly May to October every year, with photos of little surfers juxtaposed against comically monstrous, but dazzlingly beautiful tropical, waves.