Hawaiian surfing superstar John John Florence has left commentators and fans in disbelief as he scored a near-perfect score on an insane move.
A barrel looked to have wiped two-time world champion out with the commentators giving up on him, only for the Hawaiian to come out the other end.
“More waves coming, maybe he shouldn’t have taken that one,” commentator Kaipo Guerrero said. “John John, Backdoor, long wall but even John John will not find the exit door.
“No wait, he does — what just happened? He skipped a whole section.”
“It was time transport, time transport just happened with John John Florence. I have no idea how he made that much progress down the line.”
Incredibly, it didn’t earn him perfect marks, but he did land a 9.93, which was on its own good enough to beat Brazillian Miguel Pupo and book a spot in the quarters.
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“That was a magic trick, that was unbelievable,” Laura Enever said, giggling at the audacity of the trick.
“He entered a vortex and it just put him into another area of the beach.
“That honestly does not make any sense at all, even he’s a bit baffled.”
Former Denver Broncos place-kicker Taylor Russolino tweeted: “John John Florence … WOW!”
Another social media user tweeted: “John John Florence is on another level omg”.
“John John Florence is going nuts at Backdoor right now,” another said.
The rest of the comments were all equally in disbelief.
Florence grew up near Pipeline and is clearly at home on the break.
He finished his heat with a remarkable score of 19.33 out of 20 on a day other top contenders bowed out.
Gabriel Medina was knocked out by Aussie Jack Robinson and Kelly Slater, who was looking to defend his win at Pipeline, was also eliminated.
Bad news for Aussie Robinson though, he has Florence in the quarterfinals.
