Sketchiest situation you've been in?

That was def a hell moment. Not that I enjoyed the horror, but you brought it to life that's for sure.

 

From the archives: if I recall correctly, there was a guy on here awhile back who posted a saga about when he, or his buddy, was out in large surf & wiped out. During the tumble, his stick found him & the fin basically carved him from his taint onto his package. Just tore him apart down there.

And he still had to make it back to shore to get to hospital. I still cringe recalling that one.

That one stand out in my mind as one of the more gruesome tales from the surf.

 

Out in 5-7 ft. typical pretty heavy Jersey surf. SUPper and I both catch waves from the same set. We're both inside and he takes off in front of me paddling back out. I'm about 15-20ft. behind him when the next set rolls through. I'm scrambling to get out from behind him but it's too late. Without even looking he ditches his board and ducks under the wave. As I go for my duckdive all I see is a 12' SUP bouncing right towards me. Wondering if the leash is going to catch it and hold or if he will just get dragged and I'll take the SUP to the head. I duck as deep as I can and didn't get hit but I was bracing for impact. Come up. Guy just looks at me, gets back on and keeps paddling. Get out to the lineup and I let him know that he almost just killed me. He was like "oh, sorry. I can't turtle roll it." I was like, "what? if you can't control your board, don't SUP where there's other people."

 

#3. a 2 ft day in Maui, surrounded by tiger sharks...
#2. a 15+ft day on sunset cliffs. Lineup clearing set wave, followed by another right befoer I surfaced and held me under for a good 15 seconds. Broke 2 toes trying to duck dive my board with my feet like 10 feet under water... I was the only guy out for like an hour after that. Scared sh**less trying to pick off an edge to ride in.
#1. a 12-15ft SOLID SW swell pumping into Calafia in Baja. It was only me and a few buddies. DOH+ on every set. Sheet glass. Low tide... To get out to the spot, you gotta paddle out through a sketchy cove, with underwater rock jetties and jagged reefs everywheere and paddle a good 800 yards south around a rocky point. While in the lineup, you have to navigate around 15 foot BOMBS dropping into 2 feet of water off the point.... There is no way out of the inside... Just jagged reef for hundreds of yards in from the right hander... If you try and ride in to the beach on that, you will die. Just shredded against the shallow reefs by 10 feet of whitewater... So after every massive right you took, you had to scrape back out to survive... And the exit is back to the same sketchy cove, an 800 yard paddle to the north, where you have to take off on a GIANT right, that mushes up against the rock wall of the cove, and then refracts back into a left and puts you on the beach... No room for error. You have to ride the wave up into the wall, then it balled up, I layed down and slingshotted back into the beach.... If anything went wrong that day, you could feel death looming. The entire inside of the entry/exit cove is all jagged rocks and reef. EVERYWHERE under the surface. You get pitched off one of the waves jsut going back in, and you are as good as impaled. ... I have not surfed that spot since.... It was wetsuit sh**ing, piss your pants, saying prayers in the lineup type surf.... Just freight trains over shallow reef with no way out.... You must be 100% commited..... Never been happier to feel the sand in my toes.... My crazy Navy seal buddy failed ot mention everything that went into surfing that spot... I just got a 3am phone call "Hey, get your big wave baord, its on" I didnt think it through or ask enough questions....