Wipeout Protocol

Cool! I didn't know that it was an actual "thing." I just knew that it was... Thanks, Yank.

 

I agree with this. When training judo i would always start with stretching and warm up type stuff. One in particular was the tuck and roll. Learning how to fall with out posting out an arm. Which in judo is important. Saw a guy get a nasty break in a competition once from not falling properly. Anyway i was bombing this hill one day. Got speed wobbles and wnt down. I instinctively rolled. Went down on asphalt. I had one or two super minor scrapes. That's it.

Never thought about it in terms of surfing and slight movements underwater to avoid the board. But totally makes sense. So many times i pop up and the board is very close. Yet i never contact it. Except for the few times i mentioned

 

Good point in explaning this.

 

Training helps. Once at my buddy's warehouse I threw a big rubber ball against the adjoining warehouse, and his pitbull took off after it and the leash swept my legs from behind and I fell backwards, but slapped down instinctively, so neither my head, back spine or wrists took any brunt. I popped back up, laughed, and my buddy was laughing too.

The art of bailing.

 

I agree with this 100%. Mistakes do happen though and sometimes it's pure luck.

But back on that topic, I have a friend who is freakishly athletic and had the opportunity to watch him avoid a near death experience. I'm talking pure beast (e.g. 3.9 sec forty yard dash, 475lbs back squat, 375lbs bench press @ like 175-180lbs). You get the picture, just a freak. Anyways we were in high school and there was a group of 30+ kids outside in a parking lot and this dude hops on some friend's Kawasaki Ninja. He's cruising around showing off in the lot and whatever until you see him flying 45-50mph straight toward a concrete wall on the side of this building. He forgot how to break.... Right before he hits the curb in front of the wall, jumps off looking like a leopard and tuck rolls for like 10 yards. Bike hits curb flies straight up in the air does a rotation or two and gets TOTALED like bad. Smoke cloud in the sky, bike on fire, etc. We thought he was dead. Long story short this foolish friend came out unscathed, literally not a mark but some torn jeans and a ripped shirt. With that being said I think if that had been a layman the story would have ended completely differently.

Athletic intuition is cool.

 

Always cover your head. In big surf have a buddy, and use the international signal you're OK after a wipeout: one arm circled overhead, fingertips touching top of head, like you are scratching the top of your head like a monkey, once you surface. Buddy systems save lives.

 

You sound just like all the masses that have never surfed........

 

Cover head, tuck and roll. Getting hit in the face once by my board was enough.

 

^^^I only got hit in the face by a board once... and it was somebody else's. Four stitches in the forehead.

 

One time I was out by myself in some waist to chest stuff with an occasionally bigger wave that was almost always a close-out. saw a big black line on the horizon and attempted to let the wave roll under me. I went to to paddle out the back and my leash was rapped around both ankles. I got sucked over the falls and took a rail to the side of the head. It sounded like my scull exploded... Luckily it was only my rail. Freak accident... Things happen so fast.

 

#rapped

 

My leash was spittin' bars... What can I say?