I had a couple of really bad experiences this winter.
This year was really heavy. We had storm after storm from November to late February. The thing is the ocean, here in northern spain, didn’t even had the time to quiet down between two systems, and every spot saturated. On top of that, the government of the county decided to do the road again, and from living 10 mn from the peak, it was now a 30 mn drive to get there.
The place I live in has a small harbour and a small rocky beach that nobody ever surfs because it’s not well oriented and closes out all the time.
One afternoon though, I was too lazy for the half an hour drive and decided to try for the first time an ugly left that ocasionaly hit the wall of the jetée. I got there easy through the boat channel, with a 9’4 single double ender, my favorite but not really a good choice. It was big, but mostly completely chaotic and the currents were really strong It made the surf dificult and you had to paddle all the time to stay on the right spot. After an hour, I had caught 2 waves that were really disappointing (no long runs and close outs), and 2 wipe outs, and it was really hard to paddle in, even with the 9’4. Still I wanted at least a good one before getting out.
A set came in and I went for it. I was a little too much forward and the lip caught me. I airborned and smashed the water. Under I went. I don’t know why, but instead of letting go, I started struggling to avoid getting too deep on the impact zone. So there I was, under water, dragged by the volume of a 9’4 and running out of air. And when I was starting to think “this is bad”, I hit the rocks at the bottom. I had no air, I was deeep under, and I thought for an instant that was it.
Curiously, my body still had some fuel stocked, because I started swimming slowly to the top and finally made it to the surface. At least I was ok. Of course I was exactly where I shouldn’t have been, and I was ejected by the sea on the other end of the rocks.
I dinged the board, ripped the suit, but hey, I’m still here to tell the story.
Some time later, I got an even worst experience and almost drawned once again, well actually, almost got dragged by currents on open sea, on a bigger storm. But that’s another story and their was no wipe out involved. It was even more frightening then the harbour tough.
I guess it’s part of the surf …