Boogie board. Got sucked over at Blacks in a winter swell. Machined but not too bad. At least I knew there was sand below. The worst however, again at Blacks, was when I was about to get one large on the head and ditched my board. Leash wrapped around my leg and I got pounded by a couple more. I never ditch now.
I once had a wave break on me where I was in a bubble. It was crushed by the water and seriously slapped my eardrums so hard it stunned me. Scared the crap out of me cause I was aware, but couldn't move and another wave was coming down.
I remember when I was at this beach where it’s like massive wave I got a massive wipeout and then I got up and it dragged me down again let’s just say that was scary because I was low on breath
I have no desire to be a kid again. Crowds of kids with cameras dangling from their mouths that are never wrong. No parking and fistfights. Play Ice Hockey. There is more honor.
Great video, thank you for this. Something similar happened to me a few days ago at La Gravière in Hossegor. I paddled out from Plage Naturiste, where the current is very strong. It pushed me about 500 meters to La Gravière. Being fed up with the current I decided to paddle back to the beach so I could walk back to my starting point. I was approaching the shore when a set of three waves took me by surprise. Hossegor is a sandy beach with beach breaks and a steep ocean floor. I saw the waves coming and started paddling out like hell! The moment I realized I wasn’t going to make it, I saw a huge 10-12ft glassy wall of water-like a monster-ready to break over me with the speed of a train. My first thought was: “Oh shit, here we go!” I didn't really know what to do, so I quickly prepared to duck dive, my heart beating twice as fast as normal. I failed, and the wave lifted me up and smashed me down into turbulence I had never experienced before. Knowing there were more waves coming, I tried to get to the surface as soon as possible, but the whirlpool kept me down. Before the next wave hit, I managed to take a few breaths, but this time I started to panic. The next wave was bigger and stronger, and I found myself in a weird place where I couldn't tell which way was up or down. My lungs were crying out in panic, and then I suddenly remembered-the leash! I grabbed the leash and pulled myself up to the board. I popped up into the white foam, my lungs screaming for oxygen. I took a short breath, and once again-here we go. The third wave was smaller but still strong. It held me down, and I started to think, “I can't take a fourth one; I'm done.” After the third wave, I was closer to the shore, so the fourth one was just a wall of white water, giving me a bumpy ride to the shallow water, where I limped to the beach. I was coughing and shaking for five minutes before I finally made it back to my starting point. No more surfing for me that day. That was my scariest surfing experience-totally helpless, my heart full of fear, out of breath, while the ocean kept pushing me down.
Before I would start surfing, I first would learn how to keep my breath as long as possible to be able to stay under water for longer periods. It's a crazy sport. I stay with windsurfing.
Cocoa Beach Pier 1st day after hurricane Bill in the morning didn’t make it out. There was Shorebreak mid pier end pier, and then for outside the pier normally we only have end pier which is basically three swells coming in. So I went out in the afternoon again and it was even bigger, but I watched the ocean when it would stretch back. Since the ocean started pulling back, I went for it and paddle for 45 minutes puking towards the end and then I saw them! I paddled with everything I had I was riding my 6’6” and dammit if the first wave of the set, didn’t just jack and start coming over before I can get over it and I got to say there at least 1520 footers on the outside there and it got quiet. The lip came over and knew I was done for of course I was all by myself, and so I started diving straight down as deep as I could get ,after the first explosion? Three waves later, I surfaced…after the second one I had my mouth closed with my hand over it, and it was pinching my nose with my other hand because my lungs were trying to get air and I pretty much thought I was gonna drown that day, someone touched me on the shoulder as I was nodding out and calmly said in my ear relax Paul just relax you’re gonna be just fine!? Well, I I got sum air took a couple more in the head, and just bellied my board back in all the way to the beach feeling like a Joe. I did go out the very next morning in the same damn thing almost happened again, but I had a pretty good ride and pretty good session that morning as far as technique goes when I’m not diving for my life, sometimes I will duck dive and roll with my board because it is rough sometimes and you get knocked off your board. I found that rolling is easier to recover regain paddling.
oh fine ! :) as "a local" somewhere ;) i disagree a lot with many " locals" that complain.🤬 they are not fully honest ! i was thinking, tourists are there ... 10 am/miday 2pm/6pm ... july and august ( west coast of France) we know all about spots and tides ! this spot half tide for goofies, this other " full tide" ... and so on come on ! if you are lazy to wake up don't surf ! and we know that best tides are june and september !! i am not a californian but "wedge" spetember 7am is allready full ??? there is still places to surf peacefully on earth i am sure :)
What blows me away is how many people surf mavericks now, it’s packed sometimes, I’m sure a lot of the guys are sitting on the shoulder hoping to take off on a smaller one on a small day
Being from SoCal, we would simply do Dawn Patrol. Get up super early before the tourists - drive and park in the dark and be suited up and in the line up the second there was enough light to see and drop in. It felt great to finish up by 7am, take a shower - eat a monster breakfast burrito and then just chill the rest of the day at work or play.
I'm a gentle waves soft breeze swimmer, no surfing at all. I've been in some very rough water though with a fast current into a coral wall. It takes good lung capacity, a strong will to live and a mind that can calm in the worst situation. The exit is counterintuitive: to swim further out to be clear of the current and then rest on your back for long enough that you can safely swim for the shore. I would never surf especially on an 80-foot wave. I think these surfers have a death wish but that's just me. I'm a CCRN, that is, Critical Care Registered Nurse and there are things that I've done in the exercise of my profession that most people would say, "Well, I'm glad there are people who are willing to do that but no thanks." My point is that we all have our passions some of which defy death. CCRN is one of those that if you don't practice with caution and accuracy can kill you. But I would never deliberately fall off a 100-foot wave with the shoreline coming at me at 60mph. If you're willing to become a quadriplegic for the sake of a thrilling 20 seconds, that's your choice, but not mine. As for methods of bobbing back up from a wave tumble, a good life vest and a big gulp of air with a dive under the wave have always been my choice when swimming in (not so) rough water. My best experience of ocean swimming was off the coast of Maine meeting a Right Whale. He came up to say hello with an eye the size of a dinner plate. He was very gentle with me, allowing me to touch him. He pushed me to the surface to breathe which we both did and ducked under me to give me a ride on his flipper. He was so huge he could easily have killed me by dragging me under or hitting me with his tail flipper but I think he was as curious about me as I was about him. I also have "a way" with animals. It has been lifelong, I don't know where it comes from and it's not for me to ask. They simply know I won't hurt them, that I am one of them. I don't know of anyone who has had such a meeting with a Right Whale. To me, that's a joy of the ocean I'd wish for everyone. We all find joy in different ways.
There’s a point where attempting to execute a proper duck dive holding your board isn’t possible… especially bigger wave boards that likely have a touch more volume to paddle in….. last time I was in this situation was a rogue set in Costa Rica….. 5 ft bigger than anything else seen that day which was solid double overhead…. Ended up ditching my board swimming as far down as possible… still got wrecked largely to the 5.5ft leash I had being a florida surfer…. My board ended up breaking right in half in the white water and the tail was still attached to my leash…. I was completed gassed and there wasn’t anyone around…. Having the little bit of foam on the tail was a life saver…. As 2 more set waves continued to clean up….and there were strong rip currents…. Hard to ditch your floatation device…. Unless your in a predictable channel, reef break…. With other surfers around…. Your board becomes your biggest weapon large waves will rag doll you and it wherever if caught….I think a strong slightly longer leash with a back up string ho,ding the leash is vital unless you have a safety vest and jet ski…. But for solo charging no one else around that’s what I would do
I can’t watch. It happened. So many times not knowing which way is up and did I inhale enough oxygen to survive the amount of time in the washing machine
I watched my brother trying to through a set of waves. He got through the first 3 waves but he almost made it over the fourth wave but it sucked him in the washing machine. We were surfing at Pt. Mugu that had big hollow waves. I think my brother gave up surfing after that.
Being uncertain around the lip of the wave is the problem I have found. Commit and tuck in the barrel. I once backed out of a 8ft shorebreak, that thing chucked me into a pretzel on the sand.
When I was 14 I got caught in the biggest waves that I've ever seen out in the water. It felt so wrong, like how could the ocean create such massive waves. I tried scratching over the first wave only to see six more on the horizon. My friends and everyone around me had already been washed down the beach by a smaller set. It was the middle of the winter at the Huntington Beach cliffs so the water was dark brown and ice cold. The second wave was absolutely massive and I was praying out loud to God. I dove as far as I could but it still caught me and rag dolled me. It was pitch black and I could feel the pressure in my ears because I was so deep. At one point my board hit me in the head which was freaky because the wave drove my board down with me. Once the thrashing subsided I swam with everything I had and barley made the surface. The foam was like a foot deep, my legs were being twisted as the current sucked me down and let be back up. I couldn't find my board, then another one landed on me and I took another thrashing. I had to fight with everything that I had to make the surface. After three waves I had been washed in from the knarly impact zone so I let the next couple wave hammer me so they would wash me in even farther. I was able to grab my board and held on and rode the biggest white water of my life back to the beach. I sat in silence on the beach for a while and didn't say anything to anyone that day about it. After that I realized that being in the water is mostly a mind game and you have to stay calm no matter what. Now that I'm 54 and out of shape I realize that your body better be conditioned too, but it still boils down to your mind staying centered in the storm.
I always go to the ocean and one day I was swimming and I saw a huge wave from afar and I tried swimming back but realized there’s not enough time and I was just there panicking and eventually the wave hits me and it was huge as a tsunami. Since I live in japan there’s a lot of earthquake. It ends up that there was a earthquake nearby in the ocean and that was the reason the wave was huge😭
