Couple years back, I don't remember the storm but my buddy and I had been waiting for the swell to show for days. It finally started to fill in nice and clean waist to chest so we head out to get some. After about 45 minutes of trading waves the wind turns onshore a bit and the swell really starts rising. We caught a few more but it was like after every wave you had to paddle out further and further. My friend, being the smarter of us, says hes going in. I give him the old "one more good one" speech and paddle back out. By now its pretty much out of control couple of feet overhead and breaking everywhere. I catch one and as Im kicking out I see a monster breaking right in front of me. I did my best to get as deep as I could but my feeble attempt was rejected and as Im getting destroyed I feel that horrible sense of freedom one feels as their leash snaps. My only thought was to do my best to stay inside the jetty and eventually the current would push me to it. Obviously I made it. I was humbled as a surfer that day but I gained a ton of confidence in my ability to maintain my composure and survive a bad situation.
Some scary stuff. At 58, I found a couple times this winter that I can't take a beating and hold my breath like I could when younger. It's a sobering thing. The cold water doesn't help.
leash breaking at doh marias and swimming in and leash breaking at doh hermosa and swimming in. I buy new leashes more often these days. I have had numerous hold downs that I didnt like where my board was ripped from my hands, but standouts include times I had to climb up my leash at Jockos and Sunset. Also, stairs at Point Panic and one time with poor timing
Lipsmacker is right on when he speaks of the unwanted freedom from a broken leash. When you're thrown through the drink and don't feel the yank that comes from your stick tombstoning upward, you shake your leg to find a pull and no pull is found. You really already knew by then what the deal was but you were hoping this was an exception and that the light feeling on the ankle was just unusual slack on the leash. No dice. Free from the harness. Then you look at the soup between you and the shore and it looks like you just poked your head out of a frozen lake covered in snow. You see that's not so viable then you look back at the sets coming in. You can't go front or back so you look to the side and see that jetty you hate so often for similar yet different perilous reasons. Now how good is your naval combat sidestroke?
The DR, of all places, a few years ago. Storm surge from who knows what storm event. It was just .... big.... Battled out in large, heaving troughs, paddled up the face of one critter, super tired from trying to make it, didn't make it, got slammed backwards by the lip, did a full 360 reverse, landed flat on stomach, wave pile drivered into me a split-second later, drove the wind out of me, then thrashed me fairly deep under, board broke in half, and then I felt the leash let go. Scratched to the surface, barely, with no air cause I went under with no air. Exhausted & yeah it was spooky, sketchy & scary. Local pro, named Pedry, awesome dude, he saw it all from 40' away & paddled over & let me hang on his board to survive the next set. Lessons learned.
One of my scariest moments in the water wasn't even on a huge day. I was long boarding during hurricane Earl in 2010 and the waves were stomach to chest. It was a real fun and I was snagging rides all day. I caught a good ride and got greedy as I was paddling back out. Another set was coming through and I spun around and paddled twice going for the late drop before I decided to bail and dove into the wave. The board dragged me for a little bit then must have come tomahawking back at me and nailed me in the head as soon as my head was breaking the surface. Everything flashed white and then was fading to black and I remember thinking "don't be knocked out" as I reached up and grabbed my board. I ended up holding it for a couple minutes until the waves pushed me to the beach. I kept feeling my head but couldn't tell if I was bleeding, I just knew it hurt. When I got to my truck I looked at the board and saw the cracked rail of my heavy, volan glassed board with my hair stuck in the cracks. I got a couple funny looks and told another surfer to have fun out there before heading home. This pic shows the cleaned up view.
Neither, I might have been slightly concussed but it was early in the day and, needless I say more, I'm still here.
yeah, I almost got knocked out by this ridiculous girl that my friend brought out surfing on the cliffs. She could stand up but was kind of a beginner. It was like 3-4 feet. We were all sitting there talking, There was a wave that broke a little out from us, and I was on the shoulder letting the wave just go under me. I don't know what she did, if she just ditched her board, or she wasn't looking and the wave knocked it out from under her, but I was looking back at the beach and her 9 foot longboard just smashed me right in the back of the head. I fell off my board and was seeing stars and black. I looked at her and was like WTF? I guess she had gone underwater and didn't realize what had happened. But I was almost knocked out by a moron on a small day. The same guy that was out with us that day that brought the girl, was a 12 year navy guy. Been overseas a ton of times, but he was always "scared" of surfing the cliffs. Even on a small day he would always say, "lets go surf PB"... It's all because the first time I took him out on the cliffs, it was a small day, like 2 feet small. I was already in on the boat ramp waiting for him. It was low tide, so you have to walk on the reefs a while as you come in so you dont mess your board up. Anyway, this dude slips on the reefs and he lets go of his board and breaks his fall with his hand. His hand slides out because of the seaweed and stuff and he cuts his forehead on the reef.... For weeks, I heard about how dangerous those reefs are and how he doesn't want to surf there. I tried to tell everyone he was an idiot, and if you injure yourself on the inside reef while walking in to the beach, its not the surfs fault, your just an idiot. I tweaked my ankle on the cobblestones at lowers before... I didn't blame lowers...
The worst beating I took was different from the time I was most scared. I will do the scared story later as it still haunts me to this day. The worst damage I took was self inflicted on a medium sized day of great quality. My stoke factor, combined with the hubris of being about 20 years old, took me past the envelope of shredding to the realm of stupidity. The waves were coming off the exposed reef into the cove from the north, about 3 foot overhead on the sets, and perfectly glassy, totally clear water. The lefts were great, and stoke was growing with each wave, each barrel made, running back to the point to repeat the rinse cycle as quick as possible. I drifted a bit south of the point due to arm fatigue, and a swing wide set came through and I went backdoor right towards the reef. The barrel opened up, very wide and circular, and I went for an el rollo, trying to go upside down under the lip and all the way around and back upright and out of the barrel. I got smashed into the bottom, head first. Luckily I was in great shape, and had a strong neck. I was numb on my fingers, but feeling returned, and I had hit sand, not rock, so my head had a huge lump on top like in the cartoons, but it was not bleeding. And my neck hurt so bad. I was totally stunned, wobbling up the beach, laughing to myself at my stupidity and good fortune for being able to still walk.
