What do you do when you pull into big close outs? do you dive in front of your board? do you shoot your board out in front of you or what? i usually pull into close out's that are like 7ft and smaller and i imagine pulling into like 10ft close outs but i don't no if there is something different i should do to be more safe. i no it's more safer to be in the barrel than to straighten out.
depends I think, but I would think about straightening out and going out infront of the wave, after it breaks, step off the board.
I had a bad closeout experience surfing new inlet on pea island. Was in the barrel surfing a very shallow sandbar and dove in front of my surfboard. When I dove the wave flipped me upside down in the barrel and pile drove me head first with the lip into the sandbar resulting in three compressed vertebrae in my neck, concussion, and tearing every muscle in my back. After that incident I now think staying compact in the barrel on your board for as long as possible is more safe. This allows the wave to release most of it's power while your inside the barrel and you just get churned up in the resulting whitewash. The wave I was riding when I injured myself was only about 4-5 feet but was very square due to the 1-2 feet of water it was breaking over. Diving in front of your board, in my opinion, will increase the odds of seriously injuring vital body parts such as the neck and head. This is just my two cents based on my experience in this type of situation. Hope this helps.
wow. that's a crazy situation... how did you manage to get out of the water? were you alone? I don't think diving in any situation is smart. I think if at all possible you want to go feet first with an emphasis of going flat on your back. but sometime impossible to avoid positioning.... how long were you out of commish?Originally Posted by Coleslaw
thanks Coleslaw i totally agree with you with diving in front of your board is not safe because that's sometimes what i try to do and my board usually stay's with me when i go over the lip. just a couple day's ago my fins cut my arm and i hit my head really hard on the sand bar. but staying in there as long as possible sounds good,thanks for your advice. but sorry for your accident.
Last edited by catmaster2; Mar 20, 2013 at 05:51 PM.
i know ill get flack for being a bodyboarder but this subject is one of the many reasons why i continue to do it over surfing, most breaks i ride end up being massive closeouts and break in shallow water. Most of the time they are fun and harmless but there are always those beast that do damage. depending on the size ill either just hold onto my board and dig my rail into the wave's face and try to punch out the back or then once i get that first cartwheel done with ill let go of my board and it rushes to the surface away from me so it wont hit me.. i've tried pushing it off to the side right before impact but a majority of the time ( maybe its just bad luck) i end up with a board going up the wave's face and then thrown backdown into my path impaling me in the stomach resulting in pain similar to break a rib ( done that twice, so fun). And even on my rare occasions ive had my leash wrap around my neck.
My buddy who surfs normally either grabs his rail and gets low or hell just pull out depending on the size.
Heres two pictures of me on a small super clean day right before impact, not a big wave at all but it was maybe a foot deep and the sandbard claimed a large portion of my shoulder. note- two different waves.
Oh and always make a really gnarly face too.
Virginia Beach has massive closeouts in shallow water? Damn - musta missed that part of town.
actually virginia beach never does haha, all my experiences with shallow dredgers have been up in OCMD, i just go to school down here. the pictures above are both from ocmd during the Fall right before it really starts to turn on!
1995 was the first time we had an afternoon flight out of CR. we were stoked to get 1 more day in. that morning we went to Tulin. It LOOKED head high. Found a rip and got out without getting my head wet. It was 3 times bigger than what it looked like from the beach breaking ALL at once. I try a take off and the off shore blew me back(luckily). I'd paddle for a smaller wave that looked manageable, and see sets stair stepping behind it, so I turn and paddle for the horizon. I saw my buddy being pitched and sucked over and over. Time was running out so I decided the olny way in was just go. A smaller wave came, I made the drop, bottom turn and tried to blast up and out. But didn't. I came down in the lip, got churned up, but came up unharmed. I stood up in ankle deep water, looked back and saw that giant set coming. grabbed my board and tried running like hell. I got squashed several times before getting to dry sand.
We thought we had plenty of time to get to SJO but forgot reset my watch when I got there so were were an hour off. Got there just as they were closing the gate. Left our crap at the counter, ran out to the plane and made it out. 2 day later our crap arrived.
turn away from the wave or Hawaiin dive it.
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