Just happened last week in Costa Rica. 3-4' overhead Playa Grande on a 6'3". Made one and started getting cocky.
Sitting outside and a bomb stacks up. I spun around and tried to get into it, ended up going for the late take off. Got pitched and held down through the inside section.
Keep in mind I do most of my surfing on the Texas coast so the waves are quite tame with minimal power.
I'm going back to CR as soon as possible with a bigger board in my bag!!
i’ve had my share,…that’s foresure…lol.
my worst?..probably…
headhigh+ river…coming down a 100yard line-up at full throttle,
got jackhammered onto a,… “near dry” sandbar,…pick-up up and repeated the first sequence.
the third time over ,the wave dumped me into deeper waters where the strong currents pushed me back up on the dry sandbar and I proceeded to get the lights knocked out of me by two more waves…
…talk about a rush…f#%k me !
or the time i got my leg trapped at 8’ pipe on the inside…that one hurt.
the best or should i say worst… would be when i was 15 ,and paddled out at ventura overhead .at 8’ backs w/ my good friend mike short ,
overhead is a sloopy mt. ride @ 8’ backs…
within 45 min.s sets of 12-15 started in and it got hairy(especially on a 6-8).after an hour of being in the water, the sets came in like stairsteps …size?..xxl foresure.
mike and i made it over 12 or so waves(stroking for our lives), but the trough was getting longer between waves .
i remember paddling up the face of this hugh wave… on on my accent i couldn’t see the top of it…all of a sudden i hear this explosion as the wave curls over me.i eneded up going around the inside of the curl upside down on my belly,until i connected with the bottom of the wave.I don’t remember much other than going around and around,one time actually getting my head out of the curl for a second before the next rapid decent.it finally let go of me on the bottom in like 20’ of water.i can remember seeing the, “truck size” table rocks all around me.i was so disoriented that if it was for my board floating up to the surface i would have never known which way to swim.
i took chances…and won…surfing is about chances…alot you make…some you don’t.
herb
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 …
don't know which was worse..
early 70's early spring
sitting out in 3-4 pipe when actually we thought were at backdoor (our mistake)
Looking over my left shoulder I paddled for a peak on a borrowed board spray flying in my face from the strong offshores
stand up to take the classic lopez angle drop towards the right
only to realize i was going the wrong way heading into the pipe tube intead of running away from a backdoor one.
got totally blasted
neoprene vest shredded and a large chunk of reef stuck in the tail of the board splitting it up to the fin like a banana
worst part was crawling up the beach in full view of the beach crowd and then having to show my friend what his brand new board looked like.
Probably looked insane from the beach though..
early 90's
just came home, getting back into surfing and was surfing predawn (4;30 -5:30 AM) every weekend up at the northshore all by myself.
Paddled out Alii in the pitch black predawn into what turned out to be a 8'-10' foot day. You know where you can hear the sounds and see the white clouds in the lineup..
No one except Charlie and someone surfing way outside and me,
Before I could make it out to them I got caught inside and sucked over the falls on a monster(felt like i was weightless for seconds) landing on my back with the board on my head holding on for dear life putting a major dent on the deck of my BK.
Took the rest of the set on my head and by time there was any light to see what was happening the rip had taken me just past the break wall heading toward Puena park.
By time I paddled back to the harbor and walked back to the beach the first major group of surfers were paddling out.
Embarrased and shaken about what just happened I sat on the beach for a long time before summing up enough courage to paddle out to catch a small inside right outside the bathroom and go home. I realized that's how they find those cars parked near the beach on the northshore and never find the missing surfer.
Needless to say I never paddled out in the dark on the northshore all by myself again.
So much for my waterman dreams, my surfing mentality never was quite the same after that.
They say such events in surfing make you stronger living life, but I find as you get older like in your late 40's and 50's it isn't so true anymore being so close to death..
I was out at Tennis Courts back around 87 or 88. I think it 88 and it was my birthday. It was one of those days when the wave comes in from the west and runs all the way through the end bowl. The crowd thinned out just after midday and me and another guy pretty much had it all to ourselves for a while.
We started getting these insane backdoor barrels at the end bowl and it was so cool. The kind of thing where the is lip throwing over and you’re looking through the tunnel. Eventually I started getting cocky and going for deeper and deeper backdoors. On one I got caught and ended up getting thrown over with the lip. I landed on my board and my right tricep hit one of my fins really hard. After I came up I checked myself and didn’t see any blood, so I stayed out. I could hardly use my arm, but I figured it was a charley horse, and would go away. I was barely able to catch waves paddling with just my left arm.Then pushing up with only one arm. I don’t know how Betheny Hamilton does it cause it’s really hard.
Well after a short while the crowds came out and I decided it was time to go. Being that it was my birthday, my wife had made reservations at a nice restaurant, and I had to eat with my left hand that night. There was some bad bruising near my elbow, but I didn’t go to the doctor until a week later when I noticed a huge lump on the underside of my right arm whenever my tricep was even slightly flexed. The doctor said I had severed one of the triceps.
Till this day I have that wierd tricep and I still am a bit gun shy to backdoor those serious barrels. It also messed up my tennis playing since the shock from the racket would hurt. I had to start playing 2 handed all the time.
1973, slip fall in the bath tub (or that's what we were calling it in 73'). Knocked my front tooth out, pinned to the bottom by my brusier brother.........30 second hold down, just about blacked out...I don't know how he knew? but, thank god for the big man intervention, felt like one hand pulling me off the bottom...guiding me to the surface...mirykal it was. thanks Dad for saving me from Brusier..
To this day I can't bath with another man.......