I’ve only had two teeth knocked out at the same time.
Nine stitches in the face, courtesy of an unmakeable tube at Swamis and a home made leash, surgical tubing attached to a suction cup on the the nose of the board. Those things would stretch 30 feet, and then the board would come flying back.
Seven stitches and a chunk of meat out of the top of my foot, from bouncing off the reef at N Garbage. It was a big, closed out day, and I had the brilliant idea of surfing the middle reformed white water wave. The only thing stupider was trying to dull the pain with tequila afterwards. Not one of my better moves.
Mike
Howzit bill, That reminds me of an almost lost baby toe at Log Cabins in 71. Picked off a solid dble overhad wave on my room mates board and it side slipped down the face and I felt it hit my ankle. I Washed up on the beach next to the rock and was really feeling the ankle pain but then I looked at the other foot and the baby toe was just barely hanging on. The tip of the fin had been driven down between the baby toe and the next one,another donation to Kahuku Hospital and a lot of stiches. Forgot about the next one but was doing a coffin at Hanaleiat thebowl and my leg was locked and my foot hit the face of the wave,no big thing. Then about 3 waveslater I kick out and fell this insane pain in my right knee and can hardly move but finally get backon the board and paddle in but in great pain. there wereonly me nd a friend out( those were the days) and he paddles in with me and asks if I need help nd I tell him I think I can mke it but Icouldnot only not carry my board but he had to help me to the car. I ahd ruptured my cartaledge and then tore it doing the kick out. Finally had it operated on by Keith Davenport at queens and he was the best in hi and it is better than it ever was and that was 30 years ago. Aloha,Kokua
tblank...The way I see it, there are two kinds of people in the world; those who surf and those who don’t. For the former, no explanation is necessary. For the latter, no explanation is enough. Whether it be injuries suffered, achievements not pursued, or relationships lost, we surf for reasons lost on most, but obvious to ourselves and to the others that share our experience. Only a surfer knows...
Knock on wood... I haven't had any major injuries from surfing. It seems, however, that I injure myself more often when the waves are small. Maybe I let my guard down, and forget that the ocean can deliver you a smack down in any conditions. I remember surfing on one particualr chest high windswell day. I tucked in for a little backside barrel, when the lip of the wave smacked me in the back of the head. The force of the lip was powerful enough to slam my nose down onto my knee. I felt like I had been punched in the face. I think the ocean was telling me to focus-up!
Dropping in on a steep double overhead wave, back foot slipped off board front foot stayed on. Did the splits and ripped my right hip out of socket. 6-months of pain.
Fin laceration to the face (30 stitches worth) is probably the worst. It was back in the days of bunji cord leashes and the trailing edge of a big single fin caught me as it boomeranged back, just as my face broke the surface. Anybody who’s been surfing long enough to have used one of those things remembers how dangerous they were. I was lucky to not loose some teeth or an eye.
Almost broke my neck hitting shallow bottoms on a couple of occasions. Tweaked my back (L5) getting sucked over the falls onto the up-turned rail of longboard in about 1964. Could’ve been paralyzed or killed by any of those three. Lucky, lucky, lucky boy.
Near drownings from long hold-downs don’t count, right?
I did have a scary experience on Maui surfing big Hookipa before the windsurfers many years ago. Got caught inside a big set and my leash broke like a piece of sewing thread, and on that day the surf was just pounding into jagged volcanic rocks. There was one tiny little patch of sand, and the current ran straight out to sea like a river at that spot. No way I could swim in to that little beach against the current on a day like that. I tried and failed several times, until I was exhausted. Like I say, it was kinda scary.
Big crowd gathered on the cliff to watch me. I finally swam as close to the rocks as I dared, waited for a lull (they weren't long!), then swam to the rocks and scampered up like a madman just seconds ahead of the next wave smashing at my ankles. Once I got in I found out someone had grabbed my board, and pushed it out into the current running out to sea. That's what the crowd had been shouting at me, but in the pounding surf I couldn't hear a thing, all I could see was that there was a big crowd staring and shouting at me LOL!
I drove down the coast following my board, watching it bob around outside the surf zone, and no way did I feel like swimming out there! Finally out of nowhere a local with swim fins and a big belly and a big heart walks up to my car and says "hey brah, dat your board? I gettum for you, no problem brah!" Swims out into huge surf like its nothing, grabs my board, and paddles it in like it was an everyday thing. Wouldn't even take a bill for his troubles. Spirit of aloha, gotta love the Hawaiian people!
Oh yeah, but that's not an injury, except to my pride!
I've had a few smashed shins from rocks, impact bruises from other surfers running into me, nothing major. Like Swied says, most of my worst injuries were on small days. In hindsight, i have to say skateboarding was much harder on my body than surfing!
Had my share of bumps and cuts. The worst was last October I was in the water or so I was told and walked up to the lifrguard tower “I know my name and where I am, beyond that I do not know anything” or so I was told. This was in the morning and at around 6pm I am in some white noisy tube being told " it is almost over". I was having a really good time or so I was told. Best “acid trip ever” I guess I said. OB acid drug test pass ha ha no drugs. Sent home with a B vitamin pill a Ambulance ride or so I was told and a $23,000 bill. I think what happened was I vaguely remember paddling out it was a bigger day turning my head to look down the beach WHAM hit on the ear with the full force of a wave. “Not good” I said to myself as I tried to drain the bubble that had formed in my ear…
surfing playa negra in costa rica. my friend and i were out in the early a.m. and we were about a board length apart and then a huge double overhead set came out of no where. we started to paddle farther out so we wouldn’t get killed then the first wave hit and we both got taken over the falls. her board got ripped from her hands and slammed right into my head. i came up with a throbbing pain in my head, and my friend had a hole about an inch and a half deep and four inches wide in her board. i’m glad i wasn’t to hurt (couldn’t surf or see straight for a day or two) but my friend wasn’t to thrilled with her new busted board. best trip ever!!! shout out to buzz, nuke, and Chuckie.
10 stitches in the thigh from a fin cut. Three inches higher and I wouldn't have two kids...
Howzit tblank, to many to say but I do remembering that I thought I was keeping the Kahuku Hospital open for a couple of years due to so many stiches, do remember a 3 point hit from a swallow tail, both tips and the fin all in the face. Also was kicking out of a wave and the board swung back and hit my lip/nose equals deveated septum, lots more. Aloha,Kokua
I’ve had the standard fin knicks, bruises from the board / bottom / etc…
But worst damaging event was first paddle out on my brand new Bonzer… I was paddling out after the first wave and duck dived a ton of whitewater when it came around and smacked me up side the head. I was seeing stars and my brand new board had a big ding in the rail. 
I fixed it OK - but left it rough enough as a reminder. 
The sun was setting and it was extremely difficult to see. I paddled for a wave that my friend was already on because I could not see him at all when I looked back. Since he saw me paddling and thought I was going to drop in on him he pulled out, flew over me off his board while his leash carried his board behind him, and WHAM his squash (thank god) tail hit me straight in the nose. My friend came in and asked the lifeguard for something to put on my nose. Since I had wiped all the blood off I guess it looked like I just had a big nose (from the swelling) because when the lifeguards asked me “Are you the one that was hit?” they actually chuckled and said, “You’re fine,” when I said yes, then drove away. Found out later after 5 hours in the waiting room and a CAT scan that it was broken.
I’ve also had a concussion from jumping off a rock and hitting my head on my board. All I remember is thinking (but more like dreaming) “Don’t stop paddling” and then I was out in the lineup. What’s even more strange is that it was an overhead day and there was no way I could have paddled out without duck diving.
Oh, and the last injury I had was chipping two of my teeth from shorebreak pounding my face into my knee.
I was surfing really, really small waves - most just belly riding - just to get in the water. My wife had departed for the midwest that very morning to visit her mom so i didn't need to be home for dinner. I rode a few waves in the 1 to 2 foot range and, on getting out of the water and walking over a mix of rock and sand I was intimately familiar with, slipped in the most unlikely of spots and taco-ed my right-side rib cage over the rail of my board - knife rail at that. I was gaspng for air, knowing that I had done smething pretty remarkable to myself, but I was unable to think just what. Two guys offered to carry my board up the cliff, but I hero'd-up and did it myself. When I got to the car i took the top part of my wetsuit off while they looked at me bug-eyed and I asked them if I was "symmetrical". I woman appeared and said she'd seen it happen and wondered if i was going to go to emergency...hmmm, emergency?!!??... well, I'm a nurse and you may have lacerated an internal organ or two as you broke your ribs, so you probably should (huh? ribs??). I went home, took a shower after getting out of the rest of my wetsuit, got into my hospital-visiting duds, fed the cat, and drove my stick shift truck throught the night to ER. Dr. Dork at the hospital said I cracked two ribs and he couldn't give me any pain pills 'cause I drove myself in.
My wife returned on the first flight back, and after about 5 days I called my own doc to tell him that I needed another look-see (well, nothing we can do except have you sit still). But the next set of x-rays showed I'd broken two ribs in half and cracked four. He was pretty impressed with my pain threshold. Slept for over a month upright in a chair and for another two months semi-reclined on the living room sofa. In the quiet morning hours I could feel the broken segments grinding against each-other.
My wife and I went to the Plaskett Creek get-together while I was still really tender and protective of the injury and I won the "Gypsy Dress" longboard that Balsa so generously donated to the raffle (2007??). Still had to wait about two more months before I was able to take it out.
About 7yrs ago I was surfing the tail end of a large winter swell at one of the local San Diego reef breaks. I t was still shoulder-high, but at low tide this particular shelf-y reef causes the wave to jack-up at the last moment. As soon as I hit my feet the wave jacked, and as I backpedaled on my 9-6 to pull the nose up I fell off the tail. The board went over the falls and pearled, and then shot back up. I never saw it coming. The trailing edge of the center fin caught me square in the face, splitting it open from about an inch above my left eyebrow down to just even with my nostril, crushing the orbital bone, ripping my eyelid and blowing out my tearduct in the process. At first it felt like someone had stuck their finger in my eye only worse. But as I drug myself back up on my board I noticed a huge pool of blood forming on the deck and new it was time to paddle in. The thought occurred to me that I might have knocked my eye out, so I cupped my left hand over my eye and paddled with my right. I had to negotiate about 15 yds of exposed reef on the inside, while covering my eye and dragging my board. Once on shore, passerby’s noticed my predicament and summoned the EMTs. Long-story-shorter, after 5 hr of surgery I was released the following day from the hosp and sent home. Over the next eight weeks I had 3 more “minor” surgeries. While there was no damage to my eyeball, there was some unrepairable damage to the tiny muscles that control its movement, leaving me with double-vision whenever I look down or look up. This is a problem when paddling prone especially when paddling out for a wave. From a prone position with my blurred vision I can’t read the subtle textures of the wave face that indicate how steep the wave is getting. I’ve gotten pretty good at guessing though…
Biggest impact of the injury was the impact on my wife. Took over a year before I could surf without a hearing about my apparent denial of the dangers inherent in surfing. I still have to phone her after every session. And god help me if I get a surf-related bump or cut that can’t be concealed ;)
Possibly worse than the knee - surfing with a friend when my stomach gives me the “two minute warning”. Made the paddle in, but realized that I wouldn’t make it across the dunes to the rest room in time. I found a nice depression between dunes, got in position and let loose.
In my panic to avoid wrecking my suit I didn’t hear the Mother or her four kids crest the top of the dune 'till it was way too late…
Great stories guys, I can’t wait to read more.
In the 60s I had an old long board of some brand that had a foam and fiberglass fin, the top of which was worn off leaving a hollow where the foam was worn away and the raised outer layers of glass protruding like a couple of knife blades. Hit me in the hip once and it was ugly!
Then got hit in the mouth by the rail and knocked a tooth out. Earned me the nickname “Toothless” for awhile.
Was surfing Rocky Point on a large day. Got a nice tube that eventually collapsed on me toward the end. Board and I went into the turmoil. Board apparently went back up and over the falls and came down hard into my foot. Shattered 3 bones. I was supposed to be out for a several weeks. But couldn’t wait so I got a fiberglass cast and “built” a “Boogie Board” as they had just been invented and were only available as a kit. Then back to a board but could only go back side as the cast prevented my ankle from moving and I couldn’t turn frontside. Finally cut the cast off early as it was an excellent winter of surf and I couldn’t wait.
Outer Reef Pipeline, only 2 of us out, we got caught inside by a huge set and I got bounced off the bottom. Separated my shoulder. Difficult and extremely painful swim in! Was out of commission for a while but couldn’t wait and went out for a surf anyway. Got a very late back side drop which threw my arms over my head and ripped the shoulder again…
Big day at Rocky Point, didn’t make it out of a tube, board came around and whacked me in the head, 12 stitches some inside some outside, sealed up the hole.
First good swell of the season, 6’ Rocky Point. Sunny Sunday, everyone getting their sea legs back and having a great time. Family at the beach, I catch a wave far behind the peak and am turning around the peak as it wasn’t hollow enough to tube ride. A visiting surfer from xxx, with a brand new xxx board, drops in on me on the shoulder side of the peak. As I come around the peak and up off the lip… he has went out on the shoulder and is doing a huge cut back heading right back into the lip were I am.
So… I am thinking he knows that I am there and I am waiting to see what he is going to do so I know where to go. But… apparently he didn’t think I would make the wave from that far back and he doesn’t know I am on the wave any longer! He is heading right for me at full speed and I am heading down the wave at full speed. At the last second he sees me and rather then stop the cut back and turn toward the beach, he tries to turn the cutback tighter and kick out the lip of the wave. This sends both him and his board right into me at greater speed. The nose of his board is heading right toward the center of my chest. I catch it with my left hand and push it off to the side. He and his board slam into me full force, Nose poking my hand and his fins slashing my shins. And being in the lip, we both get pitched over the falls, leashes, boards and bodies tangled together.
We come up together and the next wave is immediately on us. I get that sick feeling of warm water feeling cold somewhere that it shouldn’t feel cold. Pulling my left hand out of the water I realize my thumb is just barely connected to my hand and is just hanging there. I quickly grab and hold it all together with my right hand and dive under the wave.
We come up again, he paddles away, saying nothing! I eventually make it to the beach trying to swim holding my hands together… not easy! Friends help me out of the water. Ambulance ride to the hospital on a crowded Sunday. Turns out my thumb had been nearly amputated as the nose of his board went through my palm, shattering the thumb bones (some washing away in the surf) cutting tendons and leaving only the skin holding it together. By the Grace of God the nerve was still intact. Several operations put things back together and it is about 90%. Doubt I would be here if I hadn’t deflected his board from its original path into my chest!
Don’t even get me started on the motorcycle or mountainbike injuries…!
“12 stitches some inside some outside”
That’s how they had to sew up my face: in 3 layers. The fin gash basically “super-sized” my mouth.
“We come up again, he paddles away, saying nothing!”
Bingo! If I had a nickel for every time some knucklehead did something stupid that put me in jeopardy in the water or dinged up one of my boards, I’d be a rich man! And they usually either act as if they’ve done nothing wrong or cop an attitude like the whole fiasco was YOUR fault. Unbelievable.
8 yrs ago at manresa tucking into a little cover..next thing i know i'm getting rolled, and my
fin slashes my right buttock down to the fascia...all in a place that been having more and more shark sitings...
today..kid cut me off at the jax pier...his board hits my face...cuts the through...i got a whole in my face off to the right
of my lip... so i drive home..clean up drive my ass to mayo clinic where my wife works...a few stitches outside.. lottsa stiches deep and superficial inside...looked like hamburg meat..
i guess my board caught him in the nose broke it...he went to baptist....
no one moved..the lifeguard was oblivious...
anyway..i get to dance with princess hydrocodone...hey hey hey
oops forgot..2 years ago..going left at rockview at low tide(not good idea..right steiny?)
put my left hand out and found the reef...spiral fracture of the 5th metacarpal ...
that one hurt..lucky i didn't surgery..i managed to squeez the pieces back into place..
drove tothe er..stinking low tide wet...got real fast service..himmmmm