Surfing’s Most Viral Moments In 2025
From tsunami surfers to skimboarders, bong handlers to bommie wranglers, wipeouts to wavepools, you never know when, why and where a clip is going to catch fire. In 2025, it was these few seconds that captured the biggest slices of the surfing world’s attention.
Waikiki Tsunami Guy
This video went viral after a SUP was filmed at Waikiki, after the whole of Oahu, and a whole side-section of the Pacific was asked to evacuate following an 8.7 magnitude earthquake at Kamchatka. Whether it was wilful disobedience or plain ignorance, remains unknown, but before we found out the tsunami caused no real damage, the “Tsunami Surfer” was headline news.
Tom Myers Lightning Strikes Twice
Tom Myers had flirted with virality in Easter, when the fireman and builder had caught one of the best waves of the year at Queensland Bombie, Manly. Three months later, lightning struck twice when the underground charger scored another barrel of equally epic proportions. “Same guy? Almost same looking wave! That's amazing,” said Kelly Slater, pouring accelerant over the internet. That bolt would start a fire that would see the underground charger gain sponsorship from Florence and Pyzel and claim the SURFER Big Wave Challenge Award for Best Ride.
Adrian Raza Cloud Skimming
Skimboarding massively outperforms on the internet compared to IRL, with the relatively niche sport doing huge numbers on socials. Blair Conklin is a prime example of that, but the 4x European Champion urban skimboarder Adrien Raza has even further reach. His clip captioned, “Skim is better in the clouds!” was a masterclass in a simple idea executed brilliantly, with the lack of detail only adding to the mystery. Mainly, though, it just looks amazing.
Tosh Tudor Is Welcome to Paradise
Every year, Desert Point delivers waves of unimaginable, uniform perfection. The replica nature of the wave is a big part of its allure. That also, you’d think, would put the brakes on its vitality; Seen one, seen ’em all. Yet this wave of Tosh Tudor’s grabbed the surf world’s attention by the goolies and didn’t let go. Maybe it’s his style. Maybe it’s the driving, incessant climactic tenor of Green Day’s Welcome to Paradise soundtrack. Or maybe it’s just a perfect 20-second tube.
Jake Akrop Jaws Air Drop
Wipeouts are always a crowd favourite, and surfers are no strangers to schadenfreude. This year, it was hard to go past Jake Akrop's human cannonball leap from deep inside a huge Jaws wave. It didn’t win the BWC Wipeout of the Year (Ty Simpson-Kane’s quadruple backflip claimed that), but in terms of digital retinas, this leap of faith outranked all wipeouts in 2025.
Aquatic Bong Transfer
Kookslams invented surfing virality, so this being one of their most-watched clips of 2025 is open to debate. A young hero carries his prized weapon and ammo of choice from boat to land, submerging himself but keeping the flame aloft, only for a vicious shorebreak to claim both the hero and the treasure. When a bong’s aquatic transfer, soundtracked by Celine Dion, becomes this popular, do we need to question the algorithm, ourselves, or just be grateful thatl it exists at all?
Nazare’s Driverless Ski
Nazare is catnip to mainstream normals, and when you add a 50-foot froth-filled wave, a jetski, a jetski driver bailing, and Will Santana hanging to a (now) driverless sled and getting barreled, well, it’s no wonder this racked up millions of views. I’ve watched it at least 70 times, and I still haven’t tired of it.
Hughie’s One-handed stalefish backflip
Hughie Vaughan was fresh off winning Stab High Japan when he paddled out for the first session of the day at the 2025 Swatch Nines and landed one of the most inverted, off-axis airs ever seen in Waco’s famed wave pool. SURFER said, “he greased a one-handed stalefish backflip — with no straps or winch pull — right in front of slack-jawed filmers.”