Surfing Waves

What is your worst hold down? (When you get wiped out and wave holds you under the water for a while doesn't let you come up)

I don't surf for a long, so my biggest wave was 6 ft. I got wiped out and made a big mistake trying to come up straight away, it didn't let me and hold for like 5 seconds, it was very scary.

Longer and bigger, but we still live through it. Problem with me is that if I wipe out because I screwed up I start laughing underwater and feel like I am running out of air...

I have had a lots of bad hold downs over the years some worse than others. One bad hold down I had was when I tried to duck dive a very large wave in only a few feet of water. The wave picked me up and slammed me back down on the sand bar with amazing force. I was now pinned upside down to the sand bar still holding my board by the rails, but not able to move in any direction. It was like someone was dumping a huge swimming pool full of water on top of me and I could not move. After what seemed like more than I could handle, the force subsided and finally let me up. I then paddled back out, but was kind of freaked out by the power of the waves that day and my surfing buddy was just raving about how good it was out there. I unfortunately lost the stoke that day.

One more quick one...I was in Santa Cruz and after duck diving a wave I came up into a huge mass of kelp. I should of gone back under and come up after getting clear of the truck load of kelp, but i did not. I panicked because I thought I was about to take a breath and then found myself tangled up in seaweed. I then tried to fight my way through it and finally got to the surface where i could get some air. I was then tangled in a huge pile of kelp, but I did manage to get out of it. I could see how someone could easily drown from the huge seaweed/kelp masses. Maybe someone can learn from my mistake!

tony g wrote:I have had a lots of bad hold downs over the years some worse than others. One bad hold down I had was when I tried to duck dive a very large wave in only a few feet of water. The wave picked me up and slammed me back down on the sand bar with amazing force. I was now pinned upside down to the sand bar still holding my board by the rails, but not able to move in any direction. It was like someone was dumping a huge swimming pool full of water on top of me and I could not move. After what seemed like more than I could handle, the force subsided and finally let me up. I then paddled back out, but was kind of freaked out by the power of the waves that day and my surfing buddy was just raving about how good it was out there. I unfortunately lost the stoke that day.

One more quick one...I was in Santa Cruz and after duck diving a wave I came up into a huge mass of kelp. I should of gone back under and come up after getting clear of the truck load of kelp, but i did not. I panicked because I thought I was about to take a breath and then found myself tangled up in seaweed. I then tried to fight my way through it and finally got to the surface where i could get some air. I was then tangled in a huge pile of kelp, but I did manage to get out of it. I could see how someone could easily drown from the huge seaweed/kelp masses. Maybe someone can learn from my mistake!

never thought about seaweeed before but bet that could be well dangerous if you got caught up in it mmm one to think about and defo be aware of

nice one tony g, ill keep that in mind, that woulda freaked me out

I fell down the face of a wave once while surfing with a group of friends, and for comedy effect shouted "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" as I plummeted towards the water, then I hit the water and the lip landed on me and held me down for a long long time.
And what did I learn from that? Breathe in when you're wiping out

drowningbitbybit wrote:I fell down the face of a wave once while surfing with a group of friends, and for comedy effect shouted "wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" as I plummeted towards the water, then I hit the water and the lip landed on me and held me down for a long long time.
And what did I learn from that? Breathe in when you're wiping out

thats brilliant, well least you learnt from your mistake

drowningbitbybit wrote:I
And what did I learn from that? Breathe in when you're wiping out

But only while you are still above water