Australian surfer Josh Kerr won the prize for best wipe-out of the day at the Margaret River Pro surfing competition on Wednesday but in a post-surf interview, he seemed to be angling more for the title of honey badger of the surfing world.
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For the uninitiated, surfing lingo is hard to decipher under the best circumstances, but 31-year-old Kerr delivered some truly baffling turns of phrase that made "grouse" and "gnarly" seem like the common tongue.
"I think he was trying to do a honey badger," tour communications manager Will Hayden-Smith said afterwards, translating Kerr's comments for Fairfax Media (see below).
On the third stop of the Samsung Galaxy World Surf League Championship Tour, Kerr lost it spectacularly during round one of the men's competition at the West Australian break known as The Box.
"People tell me the one I scorpioned looked pretty horrible, but actually for me, the worst was the first wave I fell on," Kerr said in an interview filmed by the World Surf League.
"I got really taken over the falls really hard and got pulled really deep for a long time ... after that first heat I was really out of breath and taking a few more definitely took it out of me.
"I knew I needed to score so I tried to arm bar, like, put the pie in the oven, get nice and deep, but then you do that first section of The Box and the second section drops out underneath you and I didn't handle that very well ... When I poked the nose and went over, I landed straight on the reef," he said.
Mr Hayden-Smith said Kerr had been expected to be one of the best surfers of the day because he had grown up riding a similar wave in northern NSW and had surfed The Box more than most of his competitors.
"I think it was a case of Josh trying to overachieve and he paid the price," Mr Hayden-Smith said.
Tour staff members were concerned about how badly Kerr may have been injured when he stumbled out of the surf bleeding, but they needn't have worried, Mr Hayden-Smith said.
"The best thing about Josh is that he came out bruised and beaten and still had a huge smile on his face. That's why we love him," he said.
"I heard the doctor say that they were treating him for lacerations, but when I went in [to the treatment room] to see him, he was smiling and laughing."
Once the adrenalin wore off, Kerr started to feel sore in his back and neck and was treated by the physiotherapy team, Mr Hayden-Smith said.
Kerr placed second in the heat and will need to surf again on Thursday in elimination round two.
Scorpioned: Not a surfing term. I would explain [it as] the contorted shape of Kerr's body when he wiped out. He flipped off his board with his back arched so that his head almost touched his feet, like the shape of a scorpion.
Taken over the falls: When Kerr was knocked off his board and was underwater, he was pulled into the lip of the wave and smashed down into the reef. It would have knocked the wind out of him.
Arm bar: When a surfer in a barrel wave puts his or her arm into the wall of the barrel to slow down. The longer a surfer is in the barrel, the more points they can score.
Pie in the Oven: I don't know what he's talking about.
Poked the nose: Kerr would have had too much weight on the front of his board, which caused him to tip over and wipe out.
