spongers to the rescue!!!!!!

Well done boys... Sh**, I knew they were all badas$ when they said they were sponging in Cape Town... Takes balls to enter that coast line on any kind of wave riding vehicle, especially when you got dangling legs if you catch my drift... nice work though....

 

dude took a heavy wave right on the noggin & was lucky...no laughing matter. pretty gnarly situation, good on those guys for being situationally aware & being trained to respond quickly.

cep, i don't think it's a matter of geographical location. i've done prob. a dozen rescues while surfing, both of other surfers & regular swimmers who got themselves into a bad situation. i think most surfers in nj, particularly in the summer, aren't aware of what's going on around them.
&, not to sounds like a prick (but i know that's how it'll be taken), but if you can shout for help, you're not actually drowning. you might be in distress, but you're not actively drowning. that's the first thing you're taught in rookie school when becoming a lifeguard-drowning people don't wave their hands over their heads & yell "help!"

 

Man I hope if that was me the bro's in the lineup would lend a hand. I am always doing look backs after someone grabs a wave to see if they are up and paddling back in or out.. it might not be a team sport but we all should be alert and aware. Thanks for the vid- music really made it too lol

 

Looks heavy, yea funny in NJ i once saw some kook in trouble and the "locals" I was surfing with just laughed when they could of helped the kid, most surfers are just tools idk what else to say. Anyway I went and helped the kid to shore. What if you laughed and the person died?? Not really funny even if they are a huge kook not to mention the karma if one day you get knocked out by your board and nobody helps you.

 

Exactly, if this was jersey, NO ONE WOULD HAVE GAVE HALF A SH!T!!!!!!!!!!

 

Uhhhh, plenty o turds abound here, but please don't lump me into this.

 

his brain was in trauma/shutdown/bluescreen/404 error mode

they saved his life without a doubt

 

Good on them, I never expect anybody to look out for me while i'm out there, so if someone did it would be a bonus. I surf alone a lot or with very few people and I know if something went wrong I'd have to rely on myself, so I've just gotten use to that fact and I think that's actually good for the mind because it forces you to be on your game but also in a bad situation you are forced to bail yourself out. Now, if we're talking big wave surfing, i'd say it's smart to have all the help you can get. HAHA, no messing around at that level.

 

Haven't watched the video yet but looked gnarly to shizzle. I'll second that anyone riding anything down there has big balls.

 

Not on MSW anymorw but found the video...


http://www.zigzag.co.za/zagspy/always-surf-with-a-buddy-dramatic-rescue-serves-a-reminder/

 

they man'd up. did the right thing without question.

 

Yeah man, that dude was clearly disoriented and in trouble.

 

In terms of whether the guy was a kook, you never really saw how he got into the situation to begin with (I'm assuming where the video says "wave 1" and you see his head bobbing in the impact zone, he had already been injured/concussed earlier?).

But also yeah re: drowning vs. water-based panic attacks (i.e. splashing your arms around on the surface yelling for help means you aren't drowning), sure that's normally true but there are definitely situations (i.e. stuck in the impact zone someplace with a rocky shore / secondary shore-break that makes just trying to go in/ashore unsafe) where any sane person would be panicked... you know, the whole "in the last 2 minutes, there have been 15 seconds where I am able to take a breath, and the waves have picked when those 15 seconds are" situation, or the thing where whatever you do, the waves do the exact opposite (i.e. you head for shore and the waves get progressively smaller so they keep breaking on your head no matter how far in you move, or you head _out_ and the waves get progressively larger so they keep breaking on your head)...

 

I don't live in Jersey, but I've been there and seen the waves... And they aren't heavier than the ones above on a normal day. Let alone waaaaaay heavier.

 

Sh!t when I saw this thread last night I couldn't see the video on my kindlefire73s, now I see it in the OP. All these devices are strange.

 

They show the wave. It's the first thing that says "The Wave" and shows up pull in under the lip and then take it right on the dome. After that, he was separated and bobbing up and down.

My friend who has taken me out in the biggest surf I have ever surfed is an ex-navy seal. He told me a story about a sponger that died in the lineup on the biggest say in SoCal history at Indicator on sunset cliffs. He didn't drown. He had a heart attack out in the lineup. Chris said that like everyone else in the lineup went into the impact zone and risked their own lives to help pull him in to shore. Chris said he had the lineup to himself for about an hour afterwards. But he said they had enough help. But yeah, everyone created like a giant flotation circle and paddled him in, albeit it dead.

 

I don't care if it is the biggest kook or Kelly Slater, if you see someone in the water that needs help, you help them. Of course, you dont want to drown in the process, but if you can help without putting your life on the line, you do. Another reason to make friends in the lineup and not foes.

 

surfers save lives frequently. i have done this and i know most of the older guys as well have.
you never hear about golfers or basketball players saving people.