Soli Bailey was born during the biggest storm in the history of Byron Bay. And he just won one of our favorite contests, the Volcom Pipe Pro. It’s our favorite for a few reason, mostly because the commentators don’t handle us with kid gloves, and even better, Red Bull implemented an “Other Guys” secondary commentary booth that is, dare I say, real? It’s handled by Chris Binns and Taylor Paul, both former editors of major surf mags, and they focused more on water cooler type talk and made it enjoyable to have the contest on at the house or office. So good work there guys, let’s evolve this.

Watch Soli Bailey in Everything’s Wrong but in the Right Place here:

Everything’s Wrong But In The Right Place from What Youth on Vimeo.

Secondly: we’re surprised everyone was so SHOCKED to hear that Soli, relatively “unknown” Australian, won in a heat against former World Champ Adriano DeSouza, the one and only Bruce Irons and CA upstart Griffin Colapinto. We noticed a little extra barrel prowess during production of our recent film “Everything’s Wrong but in the Right Place,” and saw his performance out at maxing Greenbush — one of the sketchiest waves in Indo — and knew he was the real deal. So no, we’re not not surprised at all. Hell, we’ve been comparing the way he stood there straight up at the Bush to Andy since the trip. Very comfortable, very poised: exactly what you need to win and be successful at Pipe and in Hawaii.

Grab a copy of What Youth Issue 15 here if you want pictorial evidence as well: Soli is on the cover, bleeding.

Pretty sure the Australians will take care of the after party. And we’re confident Soli can beer bong with the best of em. Congrats, dude.

Watch our Afternoon Interview with Soli here: