Toward the end of a gala dinner at Waco Surf that grew more rowdy by the minute, Matt Meola stayed true to his roots. For well over a decade, the high-flying Maui surfer has redefined what’s possible on a surfboard (both in and out of wave pools). He’s never been shy about his goals, giving credit where it’s due and celebrating innovative surfing.
This last week at the 2025 Swatch Nines Surf, Matt landed one of the airs of his life at age 36. But when his peers crowned his move as the best of the event during the banquet, Matt dragged Hughie Vaughan on stage with him, lauding the young Australian’s one-handed backflip endorsed by Tony Hawk the day prior. Matt proclaimed the award a tie, and the crowd roared right back.
“Some of the highest quality surfing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Mason Ho said of Hughie’s flip. “It almost looked like snowboarding, it looked fake, but he wasn’t strapped in, and he was just surfing. I was like, ‘Whoa, I think this is what this is all about.’”
Theo Acworth/Swatch Nines
The catch of the Swatch Nines Surf event is this: Even though there are no scores, heats and no prizemoney, it incentivizes dramatic surfing. The playing field is so wide open it practically begs the surfers to go huge. It’s competitive in an underlying, unspoken kind of way. Hughie’s backflip might have taken the cake if Matt, in the middle of the baking afternoon, hadn’t been allowed 10 more minutes to try an air no one has ever landed before. After a few cracks, he had it: a seamless stalefish alley oop rodeo 540. That’s what surfers more tech-savvy than I called it, but “The Meola Flip” has a nice ring to it. After stepping off his board, Matt was doused in beers like he won a contest, and the first person to embrace him was Hughie, of course.
Blair Alley
“I was so nervous because I didn’t want to let everyone down, and they’re like, giving their pool time away for me to do this thing,” Matt said. “It was honestly crazy pressure. I was just like, oh my gosh, everyone’s watching me. If I don’t pull this, it’s going to be pretty sad. But I was able to stomp it, and it was just like a weight was lifted. It was crazy cool.”
Theo Acworth/Swatch Nines
So much more happened at Swatch Nines Surf, it’s a bit of a heat haze. Ramps and rings were suspended above the pool by a massive, 200-ton crane. Mason Ho went from landing Christ Airs to sliding across fat, floating rails and the wallride platform. Chippa Wilson put on a varial tutorial. Jacob Szekely popped flares and stomped a reverse Superman. Robbie McCormick belted the “Sissy Suace” air sectoin with trademark uncanny consistency.
Theo Acworth/Swatch Nines
Skai Suitt and Zoey Kaina, ages 15 and 14, respectively, were the two standout girls from the event. Both are pint-sized but absolutely rip. Skai landed a big backside air reverse and a Madonna air, grabbing the front of her board with one hand while extending her front foot behind her.
“I feel like this is not a comp, so you’re just trying to go as big as you can,” Skai said. “Once you make the one air, you’re satisfied. And all these good guys are giving you advice to go big and have good technique.”
Theo Acworth/Swatch Nines
“The Nines gives us the platform to dream as big as we want and have goals, and they help us execute them,” said Zoe McDougall, who helped conceptualize the event features and was named Female MVP by her peers. “Whether it’s building something crazy or working on a specific trick, pretty much they tell us, ‘Dream big’ and then ask ‘what do you want to do?’ and they help you make it happen. And all of us are gonna have fun while we’re doing it!”
Theo Acworth/Swatch Nines
I don’t know what the day rate is for the filmers, photographers and production staff around Swatch Nines Surf, but they earned a pay raise. They worked for three days straight under the scorching Texas sun, then retreated into a dark room to edit clips well into the night. By the time of the last dinner, they had turned around most of a top-shelf highlight reel. It should be live on YouTube here by this weekend. You don’t want to miss it.
Theo Acworth/Swatch Nines
“I caught myself telling my buddies, ‘We’re in there, we’re living the dream,’” Mason said. “There’s a lot of people behind the scenes doing a lot of work so we have more fun than usual. You bring the skaters and the bikers here, I feel like as a surfer, we want to do our best for them, and that brings out the best.”