Kirk Flintoff wins O'Neill Wave of the Winter Southern Hemi Reader's Choice for August And for very good reason -- a long, gurgly, double-up drainer in NSW

Published: September 28, 2016

September 28, 2016 Views: 1,919







Kirk Flintoff wins O'Neill Wave of the Winter Southern Hemi Reader's Choice for August And for very good reason - a long, gurgly, double-up drainer in NSW.

Kirk Flintoff is not a famous surfer.

He’s not on the WCT, WQS or BWT, and he isn’t putting out groovy freesurf edits for the Internet to consume every month. But you might have seen his work before on these pages: solid GoPro of the World contenders in 2014 and 2015 . And, most recently, his crazy left barrel in NSW from August 1st (see slideshow), which has won the reader’s choice for August It should be noted here that the overall winner of the O’Neill Wave of the Winter Southern Hemi – and the $25,000 -- will be chosen by the judges , not by user voting. Which of course doesn’t make Flintoff’s wave any less special. It is special as hell. In part becauseAnd in part because he surfs it so darn well. And in part because it’s so long and technical and he could’ve been written off multiple times before coming out.How rare is that wave, anyways?“It's very rare, Flintoff says. “A lot of things came together — tide, swell, direction. I’ve surfed there my whole life and never seen one come through that ran down the reef so long. It was definitely the best wave I've had out there — I’ve had bigger, but never one so long and hollow and so many emotions going through it thinking, ‘shit I'm too deep; wait no I'm not,’ it keep letting me get into the next part then would make me feel like I was too deep then it breathed and let me through again.”What would it mean to win the $25K? “It would mean everything probably," he laughs. “I would probably pack up shop and chase swells till it all ran out, hopefully letting it roll into better pits.”Check back soon for September’s Top Five, the Overall Top Five, and then, in mid-October, we will announce the Grand Prize (once again: $25,000!) winner.