Claiming: The Shame of it.

A Claim: A celebration of catching a good wave for self indulgent purpose, also used in competitive surfing to influence judging.




Smoking head and a half hollow Praa sands, barrels going down between some close outs. I take off on a bomb going right, it stands up down the line and the lip throws out. I make it in and out and wave my arms around like someone having an epileptic fit. There's even a photographer on the sand. Sometime later I get to the beach where the photographer is nowhere to be seen. Heidi informs me I wasn't in the pit, I was out in front......disbelief ensues and then embarrassment. Her view was from behind the wave....I'm still in denial.



I trawled the Internet for the pictures, needing desperately to seek confirmation. Nothing at:



http://www.splashography.com/

http://360photography.co.uk/



The sheer arrogance and ego of such antics. It made me remember a heat in Tahiti, Teahupoo when Andy Irons needed a 9.6 against Dean Morrison with seconds on the clock, disappeared in a pit (un debatable) and then exited and shotgun claimed the heat over "Dingo".........and then lost the heat by 0.1, having aimed an imaginery shotgun at a close competitors head and pulling the trigger.....I wonder  if he said"Chick chick boom"

Andy irons and I have both made stupid and embarrassing claims...that is where the comparison ends.

 Be careful of claiming is my advice, you might end up like Andy Irons is the moral of the story.

The following video I would like to add does not reflect the views of Spinalsurfer, but did make him stare in disbelief and laugh a lot.