You Have To See These Surfing Gymnasts

There are people who can surf, and there are people who can do gymnastics. And then there are people like Lauren Oiye and Chuck Inman who can surf and do gymnastics at the same time. Does anyone else feel unaccomplished, or is that just me?

Lauren Oiye and Chuck Inman are what's referred to as tandem surfers, which typically involves male and female partners where the man lifts the woman into the air and into various poses. Considering the amount of balance and concentration it takes to just keep upright and moving on a surf board, the fact that anyone can manage that while hoisting another person is impressive, not to mention the way both partners are able to distribute their weight in such a way that they don't topple off the board. And as for Oiye's poses, those are just incredible.

As someone who can neither surf nor do gymnastics without falling into the ocean or flat on my face, these two absolutely amaze me.

Thankfully, I'm not alone in that opinion. Oiye and Inman are the ITSA Tandem Surfing World Tour Champions and the ISA Tandem Surfing World Champions, and once you see them in action, you'll probably understand why.

Watching through a camera attached to the surf board, we watch as they start out like this, just paddling away like two normal people sharing a surf board.

And then they just launch right into this:

And go on to pull off stuff like this:

Or this:

Or this:

It look unreal, right? And yet somehow they both make it look effortless. You have to watch the whole thing.

Images: Caters TV/YouTube (5)