In 2020, professional surfer Keala Kennelly won an award she would rather not have gotten: Wipeout of the Year . (Not that you can’t detect a hint of pride in her voice as she says, “It’s usually been a men’s award—only men had ever gotten that before.”) Kennelly, 43, who’s been called “the best female surfer on Earth,” has long been known for her fearless approach to waves that few (if any) other women would attempt to catch. The wipeout award came from a ride at the Jaws Big Wave Championships in Maui when, just as she was trying to drop in, a gust of wind flipped over her board. “The board hit me in my shin, then it flipped up and hit me in my ribs, then flipped up again and hit me in my chin, then I cartwheeled down a 50-foot wave,” she recalls. The leash, which attaches the board to a surfer’s ankle, pulled her leg out of its socket on the way down, and started to tear the labrum in her hip. Over the course of the next year, her laburm tore a little more each time the leash p
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